


A Little Bit in Love

by galaxiebot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Afab language used, Formula 1 Racing AU, M/M, Mechanic Shiro (Voltron), Penis In Vagina Sex, Slice of Life, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:40:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22121971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxiebot/pseuds/galaxiebot
Summary: Keith's luck isn't exactly great, but when his tire gives out and he has to push his car into the local mechanic's shop, he meets Shiro, who makes him feel like his luck might finally turn around. Shiro's magnetic smile and perfect body have Keith instantly infatuated. Even as he's flying out to races, trying to cover surgery expenses for his dad, or dealing with his mom still being deployed overseas, he feels like maybe for once, everything will work out. Though, he worries that Shiro might not feel the same.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 145
Collections: Sheith Big Bang 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Part One**

Keith found himself sweating in the Arizona heat as he gave his car a final push into the drive of the tiny mechanic shop in the middle of town. Of course, the moment he did, the garage door began to close and Keith found himself scrambling underneath it like an idiot. It left his white tank top covered in oil and grease, but he had made it into the mechanic shop. 

“Whoa, are you nuts?” The man, who Keith assumed had to be the mechanic, stood near the car lift in his coveralls and looked straight-up like an adonis. He had silvery gray hair, shaved on the sides with just enough length on the top for him to have it flung back messily. His hands, like Keith’s shirt, were covered black smudges and absolutely perfect, one big and calloused and the other metal and equally covered in motor oil . They were probably the only hands Keith had ever seen that actually made him instantly think he’d love to touch them. 

“I.” Keith swallowed, trying to catch his breath, still sitting on the floor. “Maybe?” 

The mechanic grunted, “I think that might be a yes.” 

“Yeah,” Keith took a deep breath, “okay, yeah. Fair. I just really couldn’t be stuck in town with a flat tire, I just pushed my car here.” 

“Okay, but I have a front door you know.” The mechanic crossed his arms, now standing over Keith as he sat on the ground, practically consuming Keith’s entire being with his gray eyes. Keith stared up at him, still panting as he looked up at Shiro, still desperately trying to catch his breath as one thought ran through his mind—he needed to be this guy’s friend. 

“I panicked.” Keith finally managed to make his lungs function properly, his eyes still on this mechanic’s face, wondering if he was always this grumpy, or if Keith had brought this upon himself somehow. 

“And almost got crushed.” The mechanic offered Keith his hand now, and Keith took it gladly. Honestly, it felt like Keith weighed about as much as a feather to this mechanic. He set Keith on his feet like a scruffed kitten. 

“I made it with plenty of time,” Keith said. He backpedaled when he saw the look on the mechanic’s face, “I mean, sorry, you’re right.” 

“Just don’t make a habit out of it, I don’t want to deal with someone getting hurt.” The mechanic actually softened slightly and started back towards the car lift, flipping the switch for the garage door again, “so what’s wrong with your car?” 

Keith perked up, “just a flat. Well, actually, the tire blew out while I was out on the highway, I rode the rim until I got to town and realized I was on the rim. Luckily I was near the exit.” 

“I,” the mechanic paused a bit and walked out towards Keith’s car once the garage door is up, “okay. You managed to get into town from the highway on it?” 

Keith nodded, keeping his mouth shut for them moment as the mechanic seemed to look at him with newfound respect. To be honest, Keith’s tire had blown at 150 and 200 miles per hour on the track, losing one at 60 felt like a walk in the park. 

“I just, threw my hazards on and slowed down.” Keith gestured at the not completely gone tire, “until I noticed.” 

“Well,” the mechanic kneels down to poke at the rim, “you need a whole new tire, and I’m going to have to check the axle to make sure you didn’t damage anything there. Problem is, I’m not sure I have a tire for you. Unless you have your spare.” 

Keith frowned deeply, looking down at the mechanic, “I don’t have a spare.” 

“You might be out of luck.” Keith watched the mechanic stand, tugging his phone from his pocket and opening some kind of inventory list. “I’ll look, but I really don’t think I have a tire this size right now.” 

“Thank you.” Keith must have said it right, because he earned a surprisingly sympathetic look from the mechanic. He sighed, crossing his arms and wondering if he could even get an uber, he loved his hometown, but it was so tiny. It lacked some of the comforts he used to have while living in Long Beach. At least when he both had a phone and lived in Long Beach he could get an uber quickly, there was a long time that he didn’t own a cell phone while he lived there. 

“Of course,” the mechanic turned his eyes on Keith for a moment, before he headed back into the room behind the counter of the shop. Keith waited five minutes, and then he pulled out his phone, he was just going to have to call Romelle and ask her to stay a little bit longer at this point. 

When the mechanic came back, Keith was still talking to Romelle, so Keith waved at him as an apology, “yes, I will be home tonight. I can make us dinner, hopefully, I won’t be too late. I can pay you a bonus for staying, thank you. No really, I’m going to pay you, no arguing.” 

They went back and forth for a moment before Keith told her he really needed to go, and then as soon as he was off the phone, he sent her four hundred dollars on venmo. It was just over her usual rate, not true overtime but enough. 

“Sorry, did you find a tire?” Keith turned back to the mechanic, and he shook his head. 

“No,” he said, “are you okay?” 

“Uh, yeah.” Keith shook his head, “just trying to work out things with the in home nurse since I won’t be able to get home for a while now.” 

The mechanic crossed his arms, and for some reason, while there was sympathy on his face, for once Keith could tell that this mechanic wasn’t pitying him, “what’s your name?” 

“Ah, Keith Kogane,” he said. It was a small town, everyone kind of knew everyone, Keith was a bit surprised he hadn’t met this guy, but he’d been away for a while. “It’s nice to meet you, sorry I didn’t introduce myself sooner.” 

“Shiro,” the mechanic shook Keith’s hand when he held it out for him, “is the nurse for Chief Kogane then?” 

Keith grimaced, he always forgot how well people knew his dad, and probably should have been a little bit more careful about what he told this guy. “Uh, yeah, don’t tell him I told you anything.” 

“I won’t,” Shiro said, “I don’t have a tire for you, but I can give you a ride?” 

Keith relaxed, and for a moment he was about to try to tell Shiro that he would be fine, but Pidge wouldn’t be back in town for a few more hours, and while he could maybe figure something out, he didn’t want to keep his dad waiting. 

“I, yeah I do,” Keith said. Shiro nodded, turning towards the sink behind the counter to start scrubbing the grease off his hands. 

“I’ll take you. You’re taking care of your dad, I’m not going to leave you stranded.” Shiro then considered Keith for a moment, and added, “you know when you’re in trouble like this, you should really just throw your dad’s name around more.” 

Keith took a deep breath and looked at his car, “I never liked throwing his name around, even when I was a kid.” 

He opened his car door and started to pull everything he needed out of it though. Shiro watched him for a moment, and Keith couldn’t help but worry his dad might be angry that Shiro knew that his dad had a nurse with him daily. It wasn’t really like his Dad was hiding it, but he really didn’t seem fond of the idea of the information getting around town. 

However, what Shiro actually said in response to Keith was, “you still are a kid.” 

Keith nearly smacked his head on the doorframe of his car, already sort of frustrated, but he found Shiro looking at him with surprise, and honestly, it seemed to be a bit of respect too. 

“Don’t say shit like that,” he hissed. Shiro still looked impressed, actually laughing a little bit at Keith, but somehow it came off playful instead of mean. 

“Sorry, sorry.” Shiro put up his hands in defense, his car keys in his palm, and an easy smile on his face, “I meant it as a compliment.” 

Keith frowned, throwing papers into his backpack. With his car out of commission, he’d have to figure out another way to get to the airport for his next two races. He could probably use the hoverbike, but he didn’t like leaving his hoverbike at the airport unless he put it into a private garage. Otherwise, it would be too open to the elements and the seat could gather water or sand. 

“I don’t see how that could ever be a compliment.” He grumbled, zoning out as he tried to work out logistics in his head. Shiro just shrugged at him, and Keith suddenly wasn’t sure about that feeling he’d had earlier, wanting to be Shiro’s friend, but then again, Lance and Pidge pissed him off a lot and they were still his friends. “Do you need my car key?” 

“Yes. I’ll get you a tire as soon as possible.” Shiro took the keys from Keith and went back to the counter, hanging them on a pegboard after tagging them with Keith’s name and license plate number. Keith noticed that the tag actually read ‘Kogane’s Kid’ but that was fine. That wasn’t inaccurate, he was Kogane’s kid. It still deflated Keith slightly, hoping no one who came in, saw it, and mentioned him to Shiro. Something about a random member of their community outing Keith to Shiro sounded devastating in Keith’s head. “Let’s go.” 

Shiro led Keith through the back, to a similarly responsible four-door sedan parked next to the most beautiful muscle car Keith had ever seen. It looked like an old Mustang, restored and shining like it was begging to be driven. Keith’s heart nearly stopped when Shiro actually walked to the driver’s side of the Mustang and climbed in. He suddenly felt the need to be Shiro’s friend again, just so he could convince Shiro to let him ride in this car a second time. 

He got into the car and set his backpack between his legs, and Shiro leaned over him to pull a garage door opener from the glove compartment to open the door at the back of the shop, opposite the one Keith had rolled under earlier. Shiro then unceremoniously dropped it into Keith’s lap and told him to close the door once they’d pulled out. 

Keith just nodded, not entirely able to comprehend everything that was happening at this moment. Somehow, Shiro had gone from pretty mechanic to fucking hot just by being in proximity to this car and Keith’s brain just couldn’t keep up.

They were on the dusty road between town and Keith’s house before either of them spoke, and it was Shiro who picked the conversation up again.

“By the way, it was a compliment because you’re young and taking this in stride,” Shiro said, “how old are you anyway? Someone who's lived in this town their whole like that I haven’t met is a rare find.” 

Keith felt his throat close for a moment, and he looked at Shiro. Shiro was just older than him, not in the same grade and therefore they never ran into each other, that was probably the real reason he hadn’t known Keith. But Keith really didn’t want to explain that Shiro might have known Keith before his transition, and he also didn’t want to hide behind the age explanation either, because that would mean telling this really hot guy that he couldn’t legally drink yet.

“Old enough,” Keith said, hoping Shiro would take it as some kind of aloof flirting. Instead, he just chuckled at Keith, snorting slightly. 

“All right so seventeen.” It was all Shiro had to say, but the flippant way he said it really wrapped it up in a nice bow. The flare of heated embarrassment that hit Keith led him right into Shiro’s trap, and Keith spoke before he could think to stop himself. 

“I’m twenty, I don’t even fucking look seventeen.” Keith spat it out and Shiro’s smile grew in a way that made Keith feel even more like an idiot. He wasn’t sure why Shiro got under his skin so well, but him being that attractive on top of it didn’t help. 

“So twenty,” Shiro said. Keith just huffed at him and sank into his seat. “That would explain it, you probably got into high school when I was in my second year at the Garrison.” 

Keith paused at the name, and then something in his head snapped together like puzzle pieces. Shiro, Takashi Shirogane, the town’s golden boy who was injured while piloting for the Galaxy Garrison. Keith didn’t know he went by a nickname, or that he now ran the mechanic shop. Maybe Keith still wanted to be his friend, then again, maybe Shiro was just so magnetic that Keith couldn’t resist if he’d tried. 

“What year did you graduate?” Keith was curious now, he was kind of hoping it turned out they were actually closer in age than Shiro was thinking they were. He wasn’t sure if that’s how the math actually worked, but really, Keith didn’t actually go to high school. At least, not in the way that Shiro is probably thinking he did, so he could be off. 

“2076.” Shiro said, and Keith realized the mistake he had made right away, since Shiro promptly did the math in his head, “so I’m wrong, you weren’t in high school until I was piloting.” 

Keith felt any chance he had of Shiro even remotely wanting him around slip right through his fingers as he said, “I didn’t really go to high school anyway.” 

Shiro nodded slightly, “sort of like how I didn’t really go to college?” 

Keith thought about that for a moment, “I guess.” 

He wasn’t actually sure if that was true, but he was happy Shiro didn’t seem to take the eight-year difference in their age as a reason to stop talking to Keith for the rest of the ride.

“What did you do instead?” Shiro asked. Keith glanced at him, he didn’t really want to talk about work at the moment, so he told a half-truth.

“Ran away to the city.” He’d taken his hoverbike and run, getting a cheap apartment with an ex and racing as much as he could. Eventually, he started to win a lot, and shortly before his dad got hurt, Keith had top surgery. 

“Had to get out?” Shiro asked. It wasn’t a leading question of any sort, and Keith just nodded. 

“Yeah,” he said, “got a GED and didn’t look back.” 

Shiro smiled slightly, glancing at Keith, “but you’re back now.” 

“My dad needed me.” Keith looked at him quickly, and as Shiro pulled up to the dirt road which led to Keith’s family home. 

“I understand.” Keith got another one of those looks from Shiro, somewhere between respect and sympathy, and then it occurred to Keith that he still knew little about Shiro. Besides what the few news snippets he’d seen about the accident. 

“Why’d you come back?” Keith asked. 

Shiro’s smile faltered, “I needed my grandfather.” 

Keith pressed his lips together and nodded, “I understand.” 

They were quiet the rest of the way, Shiro said a polite goodbye as Keith got out, and Keith felt the strange enamored feeling he’d had when he first got to the shop again. Shiro could be a bit prickly, but Keith wasn’t particularly surprised by that, considering what he did know about Shiro’s history from the news. It was Keith’s understanding that the Garrison had originally tried to blame the crash on Shiro, and that alone was enough to make someone untrusting. 

He started dinner as soon as he got inside, and Romelle sent him the money back since he’d gotten home earlier than originally expected. Keith read over the people who were going to be in his next race while he cooked, trying to remind himself of what he’d be up against. He didn’t really want to deal with White Lion being there, Keith really needed the prize money from this race, but he was going to have to since they were on the list. 

One more win would be enough for a prosthetic for his Dad, which meant no more Romelle, and it meant Dad could get a job again. Which would make his dad feel better, and take some heat off the monthly expenses. 

“How’d you get home anyway?” His dad was sitting at the kitchen table, just waiting for dinner and talking idly about the racing profiles Keith was reading. 

“Uh, you know the mechanic? Shiro?” Keith glanced at his dad, and his dad raised an eyebrow at Keith. “He drove me here, I think he felt bad he couldn’t fix my tire right away.” 

“Ah.” His dad looked back down at the profiles, “I’ll have to thank him when I see him next.” 

Keith nods, “yeah, I’m going to tip him well for that one.” 

When Keith puts dinner on the table, they talk normally about things not related to Shiro, which makes Keith calm down. Eventually after watching some TV and trying not to think too hard about his next race, he nestled into his bed and forced himself to sleep. 

The next day still hits him like a ton of bricks, he’s got things he needs to adjust on his hoverbike if he’s going to use it to tow his trailer for the next race. Keith wandered into the large garage his Dad had built as a way to try to coax Keith back home when he’d first run away to Long Beach. 

Keith’s dad didn’t really need to build the garage, he’d done it before he understood why Keith had run away in the first place. Even if Keith had thought it was pretty sweet his dad had tried to use one of Keith’s interests to convince him it would be safe if he came home, Keith had been too afraid to tell his dad about being trans and starting his transition. It was only when his dad had gotten hurt in a fire at the local elementary school that Keith decided to come home.

When his dad had seen him, top surgery and three years on HRT his dad told Keith he understood why Keith didn’t want to come back. But by then, he wanted his kid back more than he cared about anything Keith had done or who he was, so his dad welcomed him with open arms. Keith decided he’d been dumb before, and now as he worked in the garage his dad had built as a way to tell him that he’d support Keith no matter what, Keith couldn’t help the way he smiled to himself and sang along to the music he had playing. 

He started to poke his hoverbike, and with a few checks he realized that if he fixed a few things and left early, he could just drive to the race. So that’s what he did, putting his head down and fixing what he needed to fix. It was about an hour after he started that Hunk showed up, parking his car just outside the garage since Keith’s formula 1 car took up most of the space with all its parts, the occasional old engine, and the trailer. 

Hunk caught him singing though, which meant he greeted Keith with a skeptical, “you’re in a good mood today.” 

Keith pulled himself out of the hoverbike's engine, covered in black grease up to his elbows and wearing a set of coveralls with his name on them. This way, at least only his hands were dirty. 

“Trying to make the best of this situation,” Keith said. Hunk came over and gave him a bear hug, Pidge trailing in after him with a bag of food in her hands. 

“Yeah, what happened?” Hunk looked around a bit, “your car isn’t even here.” 

“It’s the mechanic’s in town for now,” Keith said, “I’m just going to take the hoverbike to the race.” 

“So I should just tune up the speedy car then?” Hunk asked, walking over to the trailer to push it open as Pidge settled herself at a table near Keith, tugging food out of the bag. 

“Yes please.” Keith paused to wash his hands wandering over to Pidge to start eating fries. 

“How did you get home yesterday anyway?” Pidge spoke around a mouthful of burger. 

“Uh, the mechanic drove me.” Keith sat down with a burger in front of him, happy to eat whatever Pidge and Hunk had brought him. It probably came from Flemming’s, the local diner in the center of town, so it was a little bit cold, but Keith didn’t care. 

Pidge stopped, staring at Keith, “the mechanic? Shiro?” 

“Yeah?” Keith looked up at PIdge just as Hunk wandered over to take his burger. Pidge’s face quickly grew into a sly grin, settling her head into her hand. “Why are you looking at me like that?” 

“Because I’m wondering if Shiro’s the reason you’re in a good mood.” Pidge’s grin grew, and as Keith felt his face heat up in his flush, he cleared his throat to try and dodge the feeling of embarrassment. 

“Unless him calling me a kid and promptly reminding me I don’t have a high school degree could put me in a good mood, you’re wrong.” Keith watched PIdge’s eyebrows go straight up into her hairline and then she threw her head back. 

“Oh my god.” She quickly rolled into a bellowing laugh as Keith frowned at her. 

“Why are you laughing at me?” Keith scowled at her as she shook her head and waved at him. 

“No, no.” Pidge took a moment to collect herself, “but I can’t _wait_ to tell Matt about that.”

Keith pouted, “why?” 

Pidge grinned at him again, “because it sounds like Shiro was trying to flirt with you.”

His face felt far warmer than it had previously, his neck and chest heating up in a similar way. “Shut up, Pidge.” 

Another bark of laughter came out of Pidge as Hunk smiled at the two of them, clearly enjoying lively they were that morning. Sometimes, Keith wished his best friends weren’t so quick to throw gas on a fire. 

“Uh, oh, am I going to lose my job as your mechanic after this?” Hunk asked, laughing as Keith threw a fry at each of them. 

“Not you too, Hunk!” Keith got up, taking his burger with him, “the two of you are betrayers.”

“Awe come on.” Pidge laughed, “I’d be happy if you and Shiro got around to doing the horizontal monster mash. He’s been so mopey since the divorce.” 

Keith stopped next to his hoverbike, turning back to Pidge, “what now?” 

“Oops.” Pidge stared at Keith. 

“Pidge, I don’t think you should run around talking about other people’s divorces to people that they might want to date.” Hunk bit into his burger and laughed a bit when Pidge smacked him, just grimacing at Hunk. 

“I’m _aware_.” Pidge looked back at Keith now, “but really, don’t take that as a reason not to date him! He’s one of Matt’s best friends, he’s really nice.”

“I’m not trying to date him! Would you quit saying that?” Keith found a rag to throw at Pidge, full body blushing at this point as she threw her hands up. The rag missed, fluttering down in front of the table.

“Hey! I’m just saying, if you were, you should go for it.” Then she shifted to pick up her burger, grumbling, “you’re blushing so much it sure seems like I’m right.” 

“Can’t we just work?” Keith groaned, and Hunk covered Pidge’s mouth before she could talk this time. 

“We can, we can.” Hunk patted Pidge on the head, much to her chagrin. “You know, after Keith works out his emotional feelings for this other mechanic.” 

“Oh my god.” Keith grabbed a set of keys, closing the hoverbike as he walked over to his old bike, the one he’d spent three summer’s restoring with his dad as a little kid. He kick started the vintage motorcycle. “I’ll be back after I go check on my car.” 

“At Shiro’s?” Pidge asked. Keith pulled on a helmet and flipped her off. He could see the two of them laughing in his rearview as he pulled out of the garage. 

Keith took the long way into town, stopping at the local coffee shop and taking a deep breath as he ordered himself a coffee. On a whim, he looked at the barista and asked them if they knew what Shiro usually ordered. He wasn’t particularly surprised that they did, so Keith ordered Shiro’s usual, leaving his bike in front of the coffee shop as he walked to the mechanic shop at the end of the road. 

He walked into the shop through the front door this time, finding Shiro at the counter and on the phone, gesturing at Keith to wait a moment. As Keith set the coffee down for him, Shiro quirked a brow at him, only to turn towards the phone and start speaking what Keith was fairly certain was Japanese, but he wouldn’t really know if he was being honest. Then, after a moment, Shiro laughed and shook his head, speaking with the person on the phone for a while longer before he hung up the phone and turned to Keith.

“What’s with this?” Shiro asked, picking up the coffee and looking it over. “How did you know my order?” 

“I told the barista at Mama Jean’s it was for you.” Mama Jean’s was the only coffee shop in town, and everyone kind of went there often enough that the baristas knew everyone’s order. So he just hoped Shiro would be less weirded out after he explained. “Also, it’s just because I wanted coffee, so I got you coffee too since I was coming here anyway.” 

“You still have to pay me for fixing your tire.” Shiro sipped his coffee, and Keith actually laughed, he’d started to pick up that most of Shiro’s dryness appeared to be some form of humor. He remembered that Pidge had said Shiro might be trying to flirt with him, and while Keith didn’t know for sure if maybe the jokes were an attempt at flirting, it made him rather charming in a way.

“I know, I figured that would cost more than one sugary as fuck coffee.” Keith watched Shiro’s eyes flicker, and he set his coffee down on the counter. “I’m here to pay and also see how long I’m going to be without it.” 

Shiro crossed his arms, “I’m sorry I don’t like bitter bean water so I bury it in cream and sugar. But also, the tire will be here this afternoon, but the delivery guy is always late, so I won’t be able to put it on until the morning.” 

“It’s not bitter if you make it right,” Keith said, “also, I’m leaving for work first thing in the morning, can I send someone to pick it up for me?” 

“Depends on who it is.” Shiro sipped on his coffee again, and Keith was confused for a moment. 

“Do you know Pidge? Y’know, Katie Holt.” Keith figured that Shiro would let Pidge pick up the car, since she’d mentioned knowing her brother. Shiro gave him a steely look. 

“Absolutely not.” Shiro said it so quickly that, Keith was about to roll into his explanation about how she helps him before he’d even processed it. 

“Wait, what, why?” Keith shook his head slightly. 

“There is absolutely no one I trust less than a Holt, have you met Matt and Katie?” Shiro sipped on his coffee, adamant and completely confident. His eyes felt like they were bearing down on Keith, and Keith didn’t know what to do. 

“Well, yeah, but,” Keith was flabbergasted. Mostly because he agreed with Shiro. 

“But?” Shiro sipped his coffee, waiting for a decent explanation. 

“Well, she’s the only one I know that can walk here to pick it up.” Keith didn’t really have any other argument, but it was enough to make Shiro sort of laugh. 

“I’m kidding.” Shiro set the coffee down on the counter, “but also, she can’t pick it up because her name’s not on the car. How long will you be gone?” 

“Oh.” Keith blinked and thought about his schedule, he was leaving tomorrow, it would be a day’s drive, he’d have a day before the race, and then he’d probably leave the following morning. At least he was pretty sure, “uhh, I should be back late Sunday.” 

“That works out well, I’m actually going to be closed from noon tomorrow until Monday.” Shiro shrugged his shoulders, “so just pick it up Monday morning.” 

Keith blinked, “oh, okay that’s fine. Uhm, thank you. Do I owe you any extra for storing it?” 

Shiro shook his head, “no, it would be stuck here until I got back anyway.” 

“Thank you.” Keith softened, trying to show his sincerity. A lot of people didn’t realize that when you were taking care of someone who'd lost a limb and had severe burns, the little things could really add up. Keith's eyes caught Shiro's prosthetic for a moment though, and he thought that maybe Shiro understood. 

"Of course." Shiro holds up his coffee a little, "thank you for this." 

"Yeah." There was an awkward moment where Keith was just sort of looking at Shiro, it didn't take long for Shiro to raise a brow at him again. 

"Was there anything else I could help you with?" Shiro looked skeptical as Keith shook his head quickly and tried to form an excuse. 

"Sorry, I was just wondering who you were on the phone with." He spat it out before he really thought it through, it was probably a relative. Shiro had been speaking Japanese after all. "I mean, I didn't know you spoke Japanese." 

Shiro sized him up for half a second, and then he just sort of smiles, "an old friend who can get me vintage parts for my car and, well, anything really."

"Oh." Keith thought about his bike for a moment, and then he kind of falters. "Well, uh, thank you again. I'll see you on Monday." 

"See you on Monday." Shiro sipped his coffee his eyes not leaving Keith as he spun on his heels and practically bolted out of the shop. He did his best not to run, but Keith was pretty sure he was unsuccessful. 

He took a deep breath outside, sipping on his coffee for a moment next to his bike. Keith knew that Shiro was probably just being nice, he really probably wasn't actually flirting with him like Pidge said. Either way, that didn't mean the way that Shiro sized him up didn't make Keith's heart stop. Keith just tried to forget about how nice Shiro’s eyes looked in the midday sun coming through the front window of his shop. 

Luckily, Doris, the old lady who ran the quilting and knitting store next to the coffee shop stopped and distracted him from thinking about Shiro’s soft looking lips. She asked him about his dad and how he was doing, and Keith told his usual story. His father was doing well, but his father also wanted to leave the house on his own and drive a car and work again and couldn’t. Keith didn't like it. 

When Doris puttered off into her store again, he jumped back on his bike, hoping to try to clear his head. A win that weekend would get his dad the nice prosthetic, and Keith was determined to make it happen. He's done it to get the top surgery, he could do it again for his dad who had given him his space when he needed it, and still loved Keith even if he'd run away from his problems instead of just talking about them. Plus, his mom wouldn't be back for another year from the sounds of things, her latest tour doing some covert ops bullshit with the military had left them on their own for nearly two years.

As he drove back into his garage, he pulled his helmet off and found Hunk and Pidge working in perfect tandem. Hunk was elbow deep in the engine while Pidge had her laptop perched on her knees, connected to the onboard computer and letting Hunk know what readings she was getting from her tests. Keith stood near Pidge, standing on his toes to look at the engine as Hunk worked. 

"How is it?" Keith asked. Pidge glanced at him, pushing her glasses up on her nose. 

"You kind of roughed it up in the last race," Pidge said, "but we should get it back up to 100 in time for you to leave early." 

Hunk nodded, "you busted a lot of little things rather than one big thing, but we have all the parts. It's a good thing you keep everything in triplicate." 

" Yea, give me a list of what to replace when you have it all done." Keith went back to his hoverbike, letting them work. He trusted them with that car. 

"You got it." Pidge gave him a thumbs up and carried on with her work. The three of them focused then, each other working in their own way, keeping track of parts and the corrections they were making. He was lucky that Hunk and Pidge cared enough about him to help him like this. Hunk charged Keith way under what he could for the work he did, despite Keith's protests. He just kept saying that Keith could pay him the normal rates after his dad got the surgery he needed to use a robotic prosthetic. Pidge on the other hand had been his friend forever, and when she found herself in Long Beach with Keith because she'd found UCLA oppressive and didn't want to go back to her parents, Keith let her stay with him in his tiny, expensive apartment. He had a feeling she felt indebted to him, but would never admit to it. 

Keith loved them both dearly. 

They didn't finish until late at night, another round of Flemming's, the local diner which Keith ran out to pick up, and his father coming in to parent all three of them until they slept, and Keith was asleep. Before he got on the hoverbike the next day, his dad hugged him tightly and reminded him that he'd be fine regardless of Keith winning and then Keith was on the road. 

He hired a local pit crew, so it was just him making the eight hour drive breaking it into four hour chunks with a long break in the middle to eat lunch. Once he got into town, he went straight to drop off his trailer at the track, making sure it was locked before he met with his pit crew. They all talked, going over checklists and anything they might need to have on hand. Keith had two sets of tires shipped to the track, so he made sure that they’d arrived after talking to his crew. By the time he was watching old races and reading over profiles over a slice of pizza in his hotel room, he was dead tired. 

As he curled up in his bed, he read over emails from companies that wanted to sponsor him. The Black Lion had never taken a sponsorship, and it was starting to become the talk of the community, on top of that, it seemed to make Keith more desirable. He looked over proposals from big corporations, but honestly, all of it made Keith nervous. It was a slippery slope, from letting people see his face to outing himself to the entire racing community. 

While Keith wasn’t terribly worried about the world knowing he was trans, he wanted to control how the world found out. Even with Allura’s trusted legal counsel, Keith wanted to be careful about any money he took and making sure his privacy wasn’t blatantly ignored. But something caught his eye as he skimmed e-mails, reading over the subject line: MODEL OUR HELMETS PLEASE. 

He opened the e-mail, which was a proposal from a company called Fantasy Helmets which did all manner of nicely painted and stylized helmets. The proposal itself was the best part. It was a letter directly from the owner and it repeated that they thought Keith’s going to winners’ ceremonies in full racing suit and helmet was hilarious. They wanted to do a collab with a Black Lion helmet for him to race in, and the basics seemed to be that they mostly wanted him to take some photos in a few of their different helmets. He could do that. 

Keith sent the email to Allura first anyway, letting her know that he might be interested in this one. She responded fast, just letting him know she’d read the contract and would let him know what she thought soon. He thanked her and set his phone down on the nightstand, leaving it to charge. 

The next day was full of qualifying races and time trials, getting used to the track and spending some time with his trailer. Keith qualified without much trouble, he was more frustrated with the fact that White Lion and Griffin would be on either side of him in the start grid. He tried to put it out of mind, going over reports that Pidge had sent him and ordering new parts to replace the ones she and Hunk used. He ate dinner there, huddled up with various tools and parts like it was his office. 

He was still there when his mom face timed him, Keith promptly answering it because he knew how little time she got to actually call him. 

“Hi, Keith.” She smiled at him, her uniform still on as she settled against some strange looking wall behind her. “How are you?” 

“Hey mom, I’m good.” Keith set his laptop down and moved to the front of the trailer so she could actually see him. “I’m out for a race right now.” 

“That’s good to hear.” She shifted herself, glancing at something to her left and then looked right back at her phone, “I had about twenty minutes, so I wanted to talk to you and your Dad. He said he thinks you’re a shoe-in to win this.” 

Keith laughed, “I mean, I hope I am. I don’t know, White Lion and I always trade off.” 

“Still think he stole your name?” She asked.

“Yes! Why else would he just be a different colored lion?” He asked. His mom reared her head back laughing and Keith chuckled. They had a private conspiracy theory that the White Lion was trying to steal Keith’s whole image. It definitely wasn’t true, but it was so much fun to laugh about together when they did get to talk. 

“Didn’t you pull that name from someone else anyway?” His mom’s laugh didn’t stop, but it grew quieter. 

“I mean, Pidge suggested it, but I’d been using it for a few years when White Lion showed up.” Keith grimaced, his mom was right though, he had gotten the name from someone else.  
“Either way, I’m glad to see you’re in high spirits.” His mom grinned at him. “I’m sure that’ll lead you to a win.” 

“Thanks mom.” Keith smiled, sitting on the edge of the trailer. His mom had been deployed when he’d run away from his dad. He always felt bad for the way she’d panicked, it could have gotten her seriously hurt where she was, and it would have been Keith’s fault. “Hey, if I win tonight, I’ll be able to pay for Dad’s surgery.” 

His mom softened. “Keith, we’ll figure that out even if you don’t win the money for us, you know that.” 

“I know, but I want to.” Keith settled his elbow on his knee so his arm didn’t get tired from holding his phone up. 

“You’re a good kid, Keith.” His mom smiled again, “I’m so proud of you.” 

Keith felt himself go to mush, “thanks, mom. How are things going there?”

“Actually, that’s part of why I wanted to call.” His mom grinned at him, “we actually made a few major breakthroughs and Kolivan has agreed to let me come home as soon as we’ve finished up.” 

“Really?” Keith perked up, “when would you be home?” 

“A few months still, but it’s going to be much sooner than I originally thought.” His mom couldn’t stop smiling, and Keith distantly heard Kolivan telling her to say hello to Keith for him. 

“Hi, Kolivan.” Keith chirped, “thank you for giving my mom the chance to come home.” 

He could hear Kolivan from somewhere behind the phone, “she earned it.” 

Keith laughed, chatting with his mom for a while longer. He told her about how nice Shiro was to him, and she said she remembered him but didn’t realize he was back in town. She seemed to see right through the crush that Keith was forming, but he’d always been better about talking with his mom about that sort of thing. 

When they said goodbye, Keith felt a lot better about the race, and just, keeping things together in general. His mom coming home and getting a job would help a lot. He still wanted to win the money and get his dad that surgery sooner, but still, Keith knew it would be helpful to have her around again. From both a support, and an actual physical help point of view. 

Keith sat in his trailer for a few more minutes, watching the sun completely set before he closed up and went back to his hotel. He knew he could win this, he just had to focus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a great time writing this! I hope you all enjoy!!


	2. Chapter 2

Keith woke to the sound of people milling about a campsite and got himself together in the morning light. He broke down his tent, paid for the spot and left to go to a local diner for breakfast. He felt a little more than down, getting home and getting on his motorcycle without even talking to his dad just yet. Keith knew he’d understand, and Keith for some reason just wanted to take a ride. 

He did a few laps around town, thinking over the situation he was in and the fact that he still needed to go to town to get his car, but now on his bike, he had no way to get both back to his house. Keith stopped just outside the shop before it was even open, looking at his bike and trying to think, just tracing his fingers over the ‘H’ on the body of the bike. It really needed some work still, but he really couldn’t justify asking Shiro to fix his bike while Keith still needed to pay for his Dad. 

Shiro appeared from inside the shop with his coveralls fully on for once. He had two cups of coffee in his hands, offering one to Keith wordlessly as he approached him. 

“What’s this for?” Keith asked. 

“You were sitting out here for like ten minutes looking sad, I finally got sick of it.” Shiro sipped on his own coffee, holding Keith’s cup out to him still. Keith took it slowly, kind of sighing and sitting up on the seat of his bike. 

“Sorry. I just realized I wasn’t really going to be able to pick up my car with my motorcycle here.” Keith sipped on the coffee, noting that Shiro had only put cream in it. A little too much cream for Keith, but it was still a pretty nice gesture. 

“That looks like a lot more than, ‘I can’t drive a motorcycle and car at the same time’, sad.” Shiro eyed him for a moment, and as Keith sighed, he decided that maybe he should just talk to Shiro if he was offering. Normally he tried to keep this all to himself, but Shiro seemed like he might understand at east. 

“I, I missed out on some money I expected to get from work,” Keith said, “means I’m not going to have what we need for my dad to get a prosthetic like yours.” 

He gestured just a bit at Shiro’s metal arm, and he hummed. Shiro looked Keith over then, just eyeing him up for a long moment. 

“I know you probably don’t want to hear that it’ll all work out.” Shiro looked over the little town, “but it will. It will if you ask for help from the right people especially.” 

“What makes you say that?” Keith pouted, leaning on his bike and drinking the creamy coffee. 

Shiro shrugged, “when I got hurt, a lot of people here in town came out to help me. I think you’d be surprised who’ll come out of the woodwork to offer you a hand.” 

Keith took a deep breath and kind of looked at Shiro, “not to be contrary, but I kind of ran away from here. Most people don’t even really remember who I am.” 

There were other reasons for them to not remember Keith, for one thing, many of them were confused about how the fire chief went from having a daughter to suddenly having a son. They all seemed to assume he was his mother’s son from another marriage or something, which embittered them to her which meant he didn’t want their help.

“That’s fair.” Shiro considered that for a moment, “I mean, I have been wondering how I’d never really seen you around before the other day.” 

Keith panicked for a moment, this was not a conversation that Keith wanted to have with Shiro right now. So he shrugged and settled his cheek in his free hand, just trying to be blasé about it. 

“I’m younger than you,” he said, “like you said before old-timer.” 

Shiro sized him up for just a moment and then crossed his arms, “if you’re going to call me old-timer then you have to listen to my advice.” 

Keith pouted, looking down at the groundt. Shiro might be right, everything might work out fine. His mom was coming home after all, having her around could be just what they need to finally get ahead on helping his dad get better. 

“All right, all right.” Keith sat up and pulled his phone out to look at it quickly. “Either way, I can’t drive both…” 

He trailed off, couldn’t help it. There was an email from that Fantasy Helmets company, popping it open to find that they had accepted the counter contract. Keith nearly collapsed on the spot when he saw how much he was getting paid per appearance, and for each race he wore one of their helmets, and then he saw the royalties for the collaboration helmet and he found himself stammering at poor Shiro who was trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with him.

Even if he hadn’t won, it wouldn’t take too many appearances in the helmets with even second or third placements and Keith would have the money for his dad before his mom was home. Keith’s whole body buzzed, and as he looked at Shiro, he couldn’t form words. 

“I can’t tell if this is good or bad, are you okay? Do you need a doctor?” Shiro looked honestly worried, and Keith shook his head quickly, a smile coming over his face. 

“No, no.” Keith chugged the rest of the coffee Shiro gave him just to give himself time to think. “Everything’s good, you were right, you know, sometimes I guess things just work out.” 

Shiro opened and closed his mouth once, and then went, “well, I’m glad I was right. Did you get some kind of good news?” 

“Yeah.” Keith grinned, “listen, I’ll be back in about an hour with Romelle? Do you know her? She’s Allura’s cousin, either way, I’ll be back with her to get my car in about an hour.” 

“O-Okay.” Shiro kind of smiled, he looked even more confused, but he then added, “I do know Romelle, by the way.” 

Keith chuckled, “good, I’ll be right back.” 

He waved at Shiro as he drove off, Shiro watching him in a way that made Keith feel giddy. Keith made quick work of getting to his house, hopping off his bike as he found Romelle and his dad sitting on the front porch together, smiling at him like idiots. 

“I have news for you.” His dad looked excited, and so did Romelle, the two of them drinking lemonade. Romelle was in her scrubs, but his dad early on in her helping him established that he wanted her to act more like a friend than a nurse. She decided not to fight it, and honestly, it was the only reason this worked. 

“Really? Me too,” Keith said, “you first.” 

“Someone in town donated about three-quarters of what I need for my surgery through the support group I’ve been going to,” he said. Keith’s knees nearly went out from under him. His dad had been going to a PTSD support group for the last six months or so with various veterans from town. Keith never expected anything like this to come from them. 

“What? Really?” Keith sat down next to his dad who nodded quickly. 

“It was anonymous,” he shrugged, “and it’s real, the mayor called me about it. They’re making it a whole thing.” 

“That’s great.” Keith couldn’t believe it, but he was so beyond happy, “I, I took second yesterday, but with that, we have the money.” 

Romelle grinned, “I’ve already called the surgeon for the two of you, he’s excited to hear that you’re ready.” 

“What was your news, Keith?” His dad asked. 

“I can’t top that, but I got a sponsorship that I’m comfortable with taking,” he said, “they’re offering me good money to wear their helmets during races.” 

His dad’s mouth fell open a bit, letting out an excited noise, “that’s great, a helmet company is perfect.” 

His dad chuckled and hugged Keith, ruffling his hair. They chatted on the porch for a while with Romelle, who jumped on the back of Keith’s bike so that she could drive his car back from Shiro’s shop after that. Shiro didn’t seem confused by the time they were back, greeting Romelle happily and taking Keith’s money before sending them off on their way.

Keith, Romelle, and his Dad had a nice afternoon and then Keith cooked dinner. When he was done, he called Pidge, telling her the news and she adamant that they had to celebrate with her basement moonshine. Keith knew he shouldn’t agree, he knew better than to deal with his dad freaking out about underage drinking or whatever. But he was on a high, so he said he’d be over that Friday. 


	3. Chapter 3

Pidge’s basement moonshine hit hard, and it was kind of famous in town. She made it in Keith’s bathtub once in Long Beach as well, and that meant three months of them making drunk food at three AM on a Monday night. 

Now, Keith was settled on Pidge’s couch, Hunk on the floor next to Lance as they played never have I ever like dumb teenagers. It didn’t take long for it to be clear that Keith was the inexperienced one in the group, as much as he could hold his own financially and deal with a whole lot of adult shit, he hadn’t had much sex. Bringing someone home as a trans person could be hard or even dangerous, so it just wasn’t really worth it, leaving his hook up count much lower than most of his friends. 

“Never have I ever…” Lance trailed off, thinking a bit, and then he snorted and said, “had a crush on the town mechanic.” 

Keith immediately threw a pillow at his head, knocking Lance over as he laughed. Pidge and Hunk were also bellowing with laughter, which earned the two of them a look of betrayal. Keith took a drink though, hoping that none of them would call him on it. Of course, Pidge did. 

“Oh my god, you drank!” She pointed at him quickly, a big smile on her face, “I knew it. He was flirting with you, and you were flirting back, weren’t you?” 

“No!” Keith rolled his eyes, “having a crush on someone that attractive isn’t fucking hard. Lance had a Garrison poster with Shiro on it on his wall, why am I the one getting called out?” 

“Because you’re the one who gets all mush-mouthed whenever anyone even mentions him.” Pidge’s grin was intense and excited, “Keith, you should ask him out.” 

Keith felt his whole face flush, more than he already was for being drunk, “n-no, I couldn’t.” 

“Awe, why not, it seems like he likes you, Keith.” Hunk sounded like he was earnestly trying to boost Keith’s confidence, which only made Keith more embarrassed. “He won’t even say more than three words to most people you know.” 

“You guys know Keith’s not actually brave enough to ask someone out.” Lance laughed when he got another pillow to the face. Keith knew that the comment was just his way of trying to goad him into doing what everyone else thought he should do, and he just wasn’t having that. 

“Good bye.” Keith got up, stumbling just slightly before he got to the stairs. 

“Keith, nooo.” Pidge reached out to him for a moment, and then actually followed him, “you can’t drive.” 

“I’m going for a walk, I promise, I won’t drive.” Keith was out her front door faster than she could really catch him and then he was out on her little neighborhood street, leaving his keys obviously behind on the hook by her front door. 

Pidge seemed okay with the fact that she had his keys, letting him go. As he aired himself out, he walked along the small houses and found himself staring at one of them. He blinked, it was a small town, it wasn’t that weird to know where someone’s house was. But suddenly, it occurred to him that he was looking at Shiro’s house. And then he was staring at Shiro, who had noticed him standing on the sidewalk outside of his house. 

Keith knew this was a bad idea, he was drunk, but suddenly, waving to Shiro and saying hello as Shiro wandered out of his house with a confused look on his face seemed like the best idea in the world. He didn’t really want to go back to Pidge’s, and honestly, he was most bold when drunk, most people he’d asked out, he’d asked out while drunk, so he quickly convinced himself this was a good idea. 

“What are you doing here?” Shiro asked. 

“I was at Pidge’s.” Keith was only a few houses away from where Pidge lived, in fact, he could see his car from where he was, so this would be okay. “But they were being mean so I left.” 

“Mean?” Shiro asked and then looked Keith over carefully, “are you drunk?” 

Keith pouted slightly, trying to look innocent, “maybe.” 

“So yes?” Shiro asked. Keith didn’t say anything, and then Shiro sighed, “let me take you home.” 

“No, wait.” Keith caught Shiro as he started to turn around, ”my dad will murder me. I just need to sober up before I go back there.” 

Shiro looked Keith over and sort of sighed, “all right, come inside I just finished making dinner.” 

That was not what Keith had been expecting, but he’d take it. He followed Shiro into his little house and slipped his shoes off in the doorway. It was an older home, and Keith could guess that it was maybe the house Shiro had grown up in. Even drunk, he could tell that Shiro took very good care of it. 

“Were you drinking that moonshine Pidge and Matt make?” Shiro asked, sitting Keith down at his kitchen table and setting a glass of water down in front of him. “Drink this.” 

“Yes.” Keith sipped on the water, actually trying to force himself to sober up because he had managed to somehow end up in Shiro’s house. “Thank you for this.” 

Shiro kind of sighed, “it’s no trouble, I made too much food anyway.” 

“You really don’t have to feed me.” As Keith said it, Shiro set down what looked to be boxed mac and cheese with chicken mixed into it. Suddenly, Keith didn’t feel so bad about taking Shiro’s food. 

“I see that look you’re giving that, don’t judge me.” Shiro set his own plate down next and sat across from Keith. 

“Honestly, I wasn’t really judging so much as wondering how you can eat like this and still have visible abs.” Keith was going to be embarrassed about that comment in the morning, but for now, it made Shiro laugh, which was kind of nice. 

“I don’t eat like this all the time.” Shiro looked down at his plate, “I make this when I’m too tired to cook anything else.” 

Keith chuckled, scooping up some mac and cheese and started to cut up the chicken which wasn’t really cut small enough to be mixed into the mac and cheese. “I could understand that. Sorry to bother you.” 

“It’s really okay,” Shiro said, “you did the smart thing and didn’t get in your car. I’d prefer that you were safe.” 

Keith blinked at him for a moment, and then promptly turned his face down to his plate. He could feel the heat rise to his face, the flush getting worse than the one he’d had in the basement when his friends had been teasing him. Hearing Shiro say something like that, it made him wonder if maybe Pidge and Hunk were right, and that Shiro really did have a soft spot for him. 

“You can stay here tonight,” he added, “if your dad is going to kill you. You’re an adult, I don’t need to take you home to get you into trouble.” 

“Oh,” Keith said, “thank you, uhm, maybe.” 

He was already texting Pidge to tell anyone who asked that he spent the night at her house that night. Keith knew that Shiro certainly wasn’t offering him anything more than an innocent couch to sleep on, but eating dinner together and being sort of drunk, Keith couldn’t help but think that this was maybe a bit of a date. Or at least, he could pretend it was a date. Even if he maybe shouldn’t pretend it was a date. 

“Why were you all drinking anyway?” Shiro asked. 

“Uh, someone donated the money we needed to get my dad the surgery,” Keith said, “we were celebrating a bit. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do something like that.” 

Shiro actually kind of smiled at him, “I could understand that. Flying was a lot, I’m sure everything you’re dealing with is too.” 

“Thanks.” Keith kind of laughed and rubbed the back of his head, “it’s been a lot, but things are turning out okay.” 

“That’s good.” Shiro had his eyes firmly on his plate, and just then, it occurred to Keith that Shiro hadn’t been surprised about someone donating the money to them. Keith’s eyes kind of glanced at the kitchen and then he thought it over, he didn’t mean to know this, but he did know Shiro got a big payout when he sued the Garrison for blaming him for the accident where he lost his arm. Keith really couldn’t believe he was thinking it, but did Shiro donate the money to his dad? That got him nice and sober, very suddenly, and as he ate Shiro’s silly, childish dinner, he suddenly realized that maybe his crush was worse than he thought. 

“Hey, uhm,” Keith said, “I don’t know if I’m right, but if I am, thank you.” 

Shiro’s head shot up, and he looked briefly like he’d been caught, but he cleared his throat, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. But, you’re welcome.” 

That was enough of a confirmation for Keith, and he kind of smiled a little sweeter at Shiro, “can I stay here? Is that okay?” 

“Yes.” Shiro frowned at him, “I already said that.” 

“Just wanted to be sure,” Keith said and shoved more mac and cheese into his face. He felt stupid and drunk and excited to be in Shiro’s presence and when Shiro suggested they watch a movie, and gave Keith a second glass of water, Keith was completely content to sit on the couch with him. He wanted to say something about the dumb crush now more than ever, but he kept it to himself. Keith didn’t want to ruin the night. 

Shiro was acting far too normal for him, just watching the movie and keeping way too cool. It made Keith start doubting himself again, but as he tried his hardest to focus on the movie, he found himself nodding off, sinking onto Shiro’s shoulder without really realizing it. He caught himself the first time, forced himself to sit up without Shiro noticing. The second time, Shiro caught him, his strong hands holding onto Keith’s shoulder as he let Keith sink into his chest. 

“Hey.” Shiro’s voice was startlingly gentle as he sat Keith up straight again, “Do you want to go to bed?” 

Keith, in his drunkenness, looked up at Shiro and had to take a moment to remind himself that Shiro didn’t mean that they’d be going to bed together. “Yeah.” 

“C’mon.” Shiro helped Keith off the couch and up the stairs, and admittedly, Keith pretended to be a little less sure on his feet so that Shiro would keep his warm hands on him. He hadn’t expected Shiro to take him up to a guest bedroom, sitting Keith on the bed and telling him that he’d be right back with Keith’s water. Keith wasn’t even sure what time it was, and he didn’t care, Shiro doting on him like this made him feel gooey and stupid in a really good way. 

He responded to Pidge really quick, firing off a few explanation texts that he was fine, he was at Shiro’s, and to not say anything else about it otherwise he was telling her mom about the moonshine. It seemed to work, because he only got a confirmation that she was happy he was okay. 

Shiro came back with water, slipping into an attached bathroom and coming back with a bottle of aspirin, “I’d suggest taking this before you go to sleep, but if you don’t think your stomach can handle it, that’s not a good idea.” 

“Thank you.” Keith’s voice was small, sipping on the water a bit as Shiro looked him over again quickly. “Thank you for tonight.” 

“It’s okay.” Shiro kind of sighed, “just get some sleep.” 

Keith nodded and curled into the pillows fully clothed. Shiro paused and looked him over. 

“Just a second,” Shiro said. He disappeared down the hallway, and came back with what Keith could only guess was a t-shirt and shorts that had to belong to Shiro, “here, to sleep in.” 

“Oh.” Keith felt his face get stupid red and he stammered, “I, uhm, thank you.” 

Shiro paused a bit, looking Keith over again, and then he opened and closed his mouth like he was going to say something but decided against it. Keith didn’t think about the fact that Shiro was still right there when he brought the t-shirt to his face to smell it, it only occurred to him when he realized Shiro was turning around to close to the door for Keith, so he dropped the clothes in his lap, hoping that Shiro hadn’t noticed. The way Shiro’s face turned red made Keith feel like he maybe noticed. 

“Goodnight,” Keith said quickly, and Shiro chirped it back at him before closing the door. Once he was gone, Keith fell face-first into the bed again, wondering why he ever trusted his drunk ass to be anywhere near Shiro. He was going to regret all of this in the morning. 

The worst part, as he lay back against the pillows, freshly changed into the clothes that Shiro had loaned him, Keith was turned on. Keith should have known better, every time he drank he wound up in his bed alone with his hand or desperately frustrated on Pidge’s couch. He kept his hands perfectly still, setting them outside of the blanket as he tried to fight off the urge. It just got harder to ignore, and even harder to sleep, pressing his thighs together desperately after a while. 

He wasn’t sure how long it had been when he finally pressed the heel of his hand down on his crotch, trying to give himself some kind of relief. Keith could just slip his fingers inside, it wouldn’t make a mess, and he was wearing his own boxers. His fingers started to slide through the gap in the front of his boxers, one finger gliding over his wet folds. 

Keith pressed a hand over his mouth, making a tiny little noise as he started to carefully open himself up on just one finger, nervous to go any more. He wasn’t sure where Shiro’s room was compared to this one, but he might be sharing a wall. That seemed to make Keith even more wet, and so he tried to stop thinking about it. It was really hard to stop thinking about it once it was in his head, scissoring his fingers as he imagined Shiro’s big hands on him. He didn’t remember adding another finger, but as he curled them against his g-spot, he started to bite into his fist, trying to keep quiet.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a noise in the hallway. But he calmed down when he realized it must be Shiro in the bathroom, knocking something over and swearing. Keith listened carefully, Shiro swearing and digging around in the bathroom for a little while longer. Eventually, Keith kind of started to get worried, Shiro was mumbling something Keith couldn’t quite make out as he wiped his hands off on the sheets a little without thinking and then stepped out into the hallway. 

Like a cat, Keith padded quietly towards the open bathroom door, hearing what sounded like pill bottles rattling and Shiro mumbling, “I know I picked it up.” 

“Hey.” Keith came around the corner, blinking in the light as he looked at Shiro. He instantly felt bad, Shiro yelped and stumbled away from Keith, tripping over the bathroom rug and falling backwards. Shiro looked beyond startled, earnestly he looked terrified. “Sorry.” 

Shiro stared at him like a guppy for a second, eyes wild and hair hanging in his face as he clearly went from mildly panicked to completely panicked. Keith could see the shape of a panic attack, he’d had them himself, he’d seen his mom have PTSD induced attacks, and his dad would sometimes have them in the middle of the night, waking up from a dream about the fire which took his leg. He had done that to Shiro, or maybe he’d been on edge already, but Keith certainly made it worse and his blood ran cold.

Keith did the only thing he could think to do, looking at the basket full of prescription bottles Shiro had been rifling through and walking over to it. “What were you looking for?” 

He said it as gently as possible, looking at Shiro and not the bottles for now. Shiro swallowed and took a moment to talk, shaking slightly as he adjusted where he sat on the ground. 

“I.” Shiro looked like he was considering telling Keith to leave, “the Trazodone.” 

Keith nodded, not questioning it as he started to carefully look through the bottles in the basket. He eventually found the bottle labelled Trazodone, pulling it out and opening it easily for Shiro. 

“I have a prescription for this too.” Keith glanced at Shiro, who was now carefully gathering himself and standing up. He looked ashamed, but for a moment, he looked at Keith and seemed to calm down. “Do you need me to cut this pill in half? I take three quarters of one.” 

“You, take it too?” Shiro asked, and then he shook his head, taking the bottle from Keith and slipping a single pill from it. 

“Yeah.” Keith nodded normally and then shrugged, “anxiety, y’know? Makes it hard to sleep sometimes.” 

Shiro took a cup from next to the sink, pouring himself a glass as Keith put the bottle and basket back in their places. “Yes. Uhm, sorry for, freaking out. I kind of forgot you were in the house. I’m not used to having people here.” 

“It’s okay.” Keith took a step back, “I hope I didn’t startle you too bad. I know I’d panic if you turned up in my house late at night. Whether I knew you were supposed to be there or not.” 

“Startled, yeah.” Shiro trailed off, pausing to take the pill and then he sipped on the water, “why were you up anyway?” 

Keith suddenly flushed and he turned towards the doorway, trying to come up with an excuse, “I, well, I was– I felt like I was going to throw up.” 

“Ah.” Shiro didn’t sound too convinced, but he also didn’t seem like he was going to press him on it. “Well, we should both get to sleep. Thank you, either way, for being so normal about this.” 

Keith smiled this time, feeling some of his anxiety melt away, because he cared more about Shiro feeling comfortable than feeling anxious himself. “Normal about what?” 

Shiro looked like he was going to say something, and then he promptly closed his mouth, watching Keith slip out of the bathroom. He smiled though, Keith could see it just before Shiro flipped the light off. Keith hadn’t expected the way it made his stomach flutter, he should have known that it would, but it still caught him off guard. Though, the feeling of Shiro’s fingers sliding through his hair caught him off guard more than the fluttering feeling. Keith froze, Shiro ruffling his hair and by the time Keith turned back to look at him, Shiro had already tucked back into his room. 

He stood there, in Shiro’s hallway, next to his bathroom as he panicked internally. It took a moment, but eventually, Keith managed to make himself move, practically running back into the guest room and closing the door behind him as quietly as he could. Keith stood, still as possible for a moment until his knees gave out and he sank to the floor, his back pressed to the door. A hand naturally pressed over his mouth, feeling the heat rise up to his ears as he tried to calm himself down. It was probably just a friendly thing, really, but Keith couldn’t help thinking that maybe it had a different meaning behind it. 

By the time he crawled back into bed, he knew it was late, and he was entirely sober, dropping into the bed and curling against the pillows. It smelled clean, he was wearing Shiro’s clothes which still smelled like him, and Keith couldn’t handle very much of this. 

Keith fell asleep and woke to a dream that left him feeling like Shiro should be in the bed with him, and he knew that he was fucked. He was beyond a dumb crush, somehow he’d let his feelings get the better of him, and now he had to deal with the fact he’d shown up to Shiro’s house drunk and slept in his guest room. Keith luckily only had a bit of a headache, rubbing his temples as he sat up in bed, trying to think of what to even say when he saw Shiro. 

He pulled on his clothes from the night before, slipping into the bathroom and finding that Shiro had left a toothbrush in the package and a clean glass out for him. Keith brushed his teeth, realizing for a moment that Shiro was really like a real adult, even as much as Keith hated when people pointed out how young he was, the organized and exceptionally clean state of Shiro’s house made him  _ feel _ young. Young and undeserving of Shiro’s attention. 

Once he’d cleaned up a little, he took a deep breath and then paused in the guest room, folding the clothes Shiro had loaned him. He left them on the bed after making it,slipping downstairs and sort of hoping that he could maybe escape without facing Shiro. Keith knew he shouldn’t though, and as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he could hear Shiro cooking. He’d feel way worse if he tried to run after Shiro had cooked for him. Even if it was something simple like the kraft mac and cheese again.

Keith ran his fingers through his hair, trying to look more hungover than he really was as he wandered into Shiro’s kitchen. This time, instead of finding Shiro making something like boxed mac and cheese, he was calmly flipping a perfect omelet onto a plate. 

“Morning.” Shiro looked back at him, the most real smile Keith had ever seen grace Shiro’s face turned only towards Keith at the moment. It made Keith temporarily panic, but Shiro didn’t give him time to try and respond. “I figured you’d need something to offset the moonshine headache.” 

Moonshine jokes, Keith could deal with that, “yeah, I’ve got a bit of a headache.” 

“I’ve definitely made that mistake before.” Shiro chuckled, pouring more egg into his pan and then offering Keith the omelet he’d already made. Keith took it, not bothering to try to play the polite game where he rejected taking food first. Instead, he just sat down at Shiro’s table again, deciding that if he had food in his mouth, he couldn’t say anything dumb. “They know where you are by the way, right?” 

“Who, Pidge?” Keith looked up at Shiro to find him nodding. “Yeah, I let her know I was safe and that I’d get my car today. She probably figures that I took an uber home.” 

Shiro hummed, “that makes sense. So long as you told her something, she’s the type to worry.” 

Keith nodded, “and come looking. She’s done that to me before.” 

“Went looking for you?” Shiro asked, he looked more curious than anything. Keith nodded, thinking back to the numerous times Pidge hunted him down after he’d gotten a bit too drunk at a house party. 

“She’s not the type to leave anyone behind.” He took a bite of his food to think over the way he should tell any of those stories. “She looked out for me when we were in Long Beach.” 

“Oh you were the one in Long Beach with Pidge?” Shiro asked. Keith hadn’t thought about the fact that Shiro would have known about that, suddenly clamining up as he prayed that Pidge never told Shiro his dead name or that she lived with a girl because it was before Keith had come out to his parents or hers. So Keith just sort of nodded at Shiro, plagued by the worry that he would connect Pidge’s best friend, the fire chief’s daughter, and Keith. “I didn’t realize, that explains why I felt like I recognized you when you first came into the shop. I must have seen you at the Holt’s at some point.” 

“Maybe.” Keith was waiting for Shiro to make the connection, instead, he flipped his omelet and didn’t seem to be thinking about it anymore. When he set his plate down on the table, he went to a cabinet to get a mug, turning to Keith. 

“Coffee?” He was acting so normal that Keith thought he might really have not figured it out. That, or maybe he had and he was doing what Keith had done for him the night before. Just act normal to make the other comfortable. That wasn’t a bad thought though, that Shiro just earnestly didn’t care at all that Keith is trans. 

“Yes please.” Keith sat up, taking the mug from Shiro when he offered it to him. Shiro gave him a bottle of cream after, and they had a surprisingly normal breakfast together considering everything that had happened. At some point, Keith realized that maybe it was only him who was noticing all the weird, and that he wasn’t actually bothering Shiro. 

They talked over their food, just normal things, Keith maybe spent some time trying to impress Shiro with his knowledge of hoverbike engines. Shiro at the very least, seemed happy to talk about it with someone, at some point they got onto talking about vintage motorcycles and the beautiful car Shiro drove. Honestly, Keith wasn’t really sure why he’d been trying to deny the crush he had on Shiro before, leaning into it now. 

As he stood in the entryway of Shiro’s little house, thinking about the fact that he had no real reason to actually see Shiro after this since he’d already picked up his car, Keith felt the sadness creep in. He didn’t want to leave, as Shiro stood there smiling and continuing to talk about whatever subject they’d gotten on, Keith desperately tried to find a reason he should stay another night. He couldn’t, but he definitely tried. 

Shiro waved at him from the doorway, watching Keith walk down his front lawn before he slipped back into his house. Keith bit his lip, finding his way back to Pidge’s and getting his car keys from her. It wasn’t even noon, so she looked a bit ragged and shocked that Keith was already awake and moving. He didn’t give her time to try to talk to him about Shiro, telling her he needed to get home and ditching as quickly as he possibly could. 

Keith leaned forward, setting his face on the steering wheel of his car and closing his eyes for a moment before he faced his dad. He took a few deep breaths to lessen the anxiety, and got out of the car, looking over his motorcycle for a moment before a really dumb idea blossomed in his head. Keith blinked at it, thinking over the last few hours, and Shiro, and that conversation he’d overheard. The one Shiro had said was with the guy he gets vintage parts from. Keith’s brain snapped all the puzzle pieces together into one, stupid idea to give him a chance to keep flirting with the guy he had a dumbass crush on. Keith bit his lip, deciding he’d make the final decision later before he slipped into his house to sleep for an hour or so. 


	4. Chapter 4

Keith left Phoenix early on a Wednesday morning, between races, but after the first photoshoot for Fantasy Helmets. He had his first paycheck in pocket and not a single person at the shoot asked him to take his helmet off or show his face. It felt nice, like they actually respected him. 

Now he had both the money for it, and a good plan. Keith parked his hoverbike and got onto his motorcycle, riding it into town and straight up to Shiro’s shop, a curious look already on Shiro’s face as Keith shut the bike off. 

“Can I help you?” Shiro, for some ungodly reason, crossed his arms, leaning on the side of the garage door. He looked too good, too pristine like that, Keith’s mouth falling open for just a moment, but luckily he had his helmet on already. 

“Yeah.” Keith smiled, “this bike really needs a full once over and I don’t have the time to give it the care it needs, so I was hoping that you might be able to look at it.” 

Shiro blinked at him, arms still crossed, but his eyes slid over Keith’s motorcycle. “That bike is probably better in the hands of the manufacturer though.” 

Keith shook his head quickly, there was no way he would trust his bike with the manufacturer. Plus, he desperately wanted an excuse to pester Shiro while he had the bike. Keith could feel their connection, he wanted it to grow. He’d come to terms with just being Shiro’s friend if that’s how things worked out, but he really wanted to try to see if they could be something more. 

“No,” he said, “this bike is far too important to me. I wouldn’t want it that far away. You have that friend who can get you vintage parts, right?” 

“I.” Shiro paused, “I do. Let me take a look at it.” 

Keith nodded, getting off the bike so Shiro could poke through it carefully. He watched, Shiro’s hands delicately looking at the motor and once he’d taken a good look, he stood up. 

“Okay,” he said, “it’s going to be a bit of money, but it’s pretty well taken care of anyway, so I could probably do this in a few weeks.” 

“That sounds great.” Keith offered Shiro the keys, and he took them tentatively. 

“How…” Shiro glanced between Keith and the bike for a moment, “how were you planning on getting home?” 

“I was just going to go drag Pidge out of bed.” Keith shrugged, “it’s good for her to get up before 1:00 PM sometimes.” 

“That makes sense.” Shiro wheeled the bike into the shop and then seemed to pause awkwardly. Keith watched him, kind of thinking the question over in his head. 

“Why do you ask?” Keith tipped his head curiously, and Shiro shrugged. 

“Wanted to make sure you weren’t stranded.” Shiro seemed to hesitate, but then he added, “plus, I was about to go to Flemming’s, so if you were, I was going to offer to drive you back if you didn’t mind stopping for lunch.” 

Keith felt the smile creep onto his face, he felt stupid and giddy for just a moment, “well, Pidge is hard to wake up. That might actually be a better plan if you’re offering.” 

“I’m going that direction anyway.” Somehow, Shiro’s demeanor and smile felt genuine to Keith. 

“Oh one second.” Keith paused, turning back to his bike and pulling his knife from the saddle bag, clipping it to his belt easily. “Almost forgot that was in there.” 

Shiro blinked at him again, “what is that?” 

“A knife that used to be my mom’s.” Keith pulled it out of its holster and showed it to Shiro, the fine Marmoran blade shining. He took better care of the knife than any of his cars or bikes if he was being honest. 

“It’s nice.” Shiro looked him over carefully, “do you always carry that? That thing is pretty big” 

“Most of the time.” Keith returned the knife and kind of shrugged, “I don’t normally take it out and show it off, so most of the time people don’t notice it.” 

“Well, whatever works I guess.” Shiro didn’t seem disturbed at least. Usually, the more normal Keith acted about the knife, the less grief people gave him about it. Really it was just an important keepsake from his mom, something she had given him proudly before she deployed for the first time when he was eight years old, much to his father’s chagrin and he was never far from it after that. 

As Shiro closed the garage door behind them, and Keith followed him back to the old muscle car, Shiro seemed horribly earnest. He looked at Keith with a respect and curiosity that had Keith reeling, especially after Shiro had basically asked Keith out to lunch. Keith was floored, his limbs buzzing as they rode to Flemming’s which sat a little ways away from the town, nestled against the highway so it was easier for the truckers to stop at. Everyone in town loved it though, and Keith liked it because Hunk’s parents owned it, meaning they knew to call him Keith and never questioned who he was. 

Shiro walked in looking like he belonged there, slipping into a booth near the back when Hunk’s mom waved at them to let them know they could sit wherever they like. Lucky for Keith, Hunk didn’t seem to be there at the moment, meaning he wasn’t about to pester him for being there with Shiro.

Keith probably wouldn’t have cared anyway, he was too busy stealing glances at Shiro and marvelling at the fact that they were there together. Neither of them even looked at the menu, Shiro actually didn’t even seem to need to order, considering Hunk’s mother showed up with a strawberry milkshake and set it down in front of him without even asking. She had a sprite for Keith, so really, this was just business as usual for her. Keith caught the way that Shiro blushed, even though he thanked Hunk’s mother and confirmed that he wanted whatever he usually got. Once Keith had done the same, she walked off, happily making her way back to the kitchen. 

“Don’t say a word.” Shiro still looked flustered, pulling the paper off his straw. Keith just chuckled, setting his head in his hand and shaking his head slightly. 

“I wasn’t going to.” Keith sipped on his sprite, just smiling at Shiro. 

“Somehow I’m not convinced.” Shiro narrowed his eyes at Keith. 

Keith shrugged, “I’m just going to point out that this is really ironic considering you were making fun of _me_ for being a kid when you first met me.” 

“I stand by that being a compliment.” Shiro huffed, but he was drinking his shake regardless. Keith just chuckled to himself, noting this information for later. 

“It’s kind of nice though.” Keith just grinned at Shiro’s confused look, “knowing that you get a shake every time you come here. It makes me feel less bad about what I’m getting for lunch.” 

Shiro quirked an eyebrow at him, “what is your regular?” 

“You’ll see.” Keith sipped on his drink and glanced towards the kitchen. It wasn’t long before Hunk’s mom came by with a club sandwich for Shiro and a plate of silver dollar pancakes for Keith. He has to admit, even if Shiro was definitely laughing at him a little bit, the look of sheer joy on his face was pretty nice. 

“Really?” His lips were pressed into a tight, sniggering smile. 

Keith turned his nose up at Shiro, pretending to be haughty, “hey, cupcakes are just tiny cakes and everyone thinks they’re better. No different than with these.” 

“In what universe is a cupcake better than a slice of cake? Who says that?” Shiro shook his head a tiny bit, completely baffled. Keith actually couldn’t help the way he grinned. 

“Actually, I kind of agree with you, but Pidge has been trying to convince me for years that cupcakes are better.” Keith laughed when Shiro scrunched up his face strangely. 

“Then why’d you use it to try to defend the pancakes?” He paused, “also, I’m clearly going to have to have some words with my little sister.” 

Keith shrugged, “it’s the only good defense I’ve got. Did you just call Pidge your sister?” 

“I’ve known her and Matt my whole life.” Shiro shrugged back at him, “also, I don’t think there is any good defense for getting the tiny pancakes over the normal sized ones.” 

Keith started to wonder again why he hadn’t seen Shiro before, but then again, as he looked over the silver hair for a moment, he wondered if it had always been that color. Maybe that’s what was throwing him off. 

“Does saying they’re my mom’s favorite count?” Keith pretended to be sheepish about the question, peeking up at Shiro with wide eyes and a pout on his lips. Shiro froze for a second, staring at Keith. He stammered and cleared his throat, Keith watching in awe as Shiro seemed to grow flustered for some reason. 

“Yeah, uh, sure.” Shiro bit into his sandwich, and Keith tried to comprehend what just happened. He left it alone for now, of course, but he still couldn’t believe it seemed like he’d somehow managed to throw Shiro off his game for a second. More importantly, Shiro has asked him out sort of, and then Keith had somehow managed to fluster him. Keith was shocked, normally, nothing ever went this well in his love life. Of course, there were still a lot of big hurdles for him to cross before he was ever even remotely actually dating Shiro, but right now, he felt pretty good. 

They ate, and after some bickering, Keith paid for lunch. By the time that Keith was home, he felt dazed and excited, wandering into the kitchen to find his dad waiting for him. He looked, decidedly upset, and Keith felt his heart drop into his stomach. 

“Hey kiddo.” His dad put on a strangely brave face, the kind that he had when Keith first saw him in the hospital after losing his leg. “I have some news. Why don’t you sit down?” 

Keith sat, watching his father’s face carefully, “what’s going on?” 

“Well, I got a call from Kolivan this morning.” His dad pressed his lips together, and Keith felt his whole body start to buzz with an anxiety he had felt before. “Your mom is alive, and safe, she’s going to be home a little earlier than expected” 

“Why?” Keith knew that sooner could be worse than her coming back later than expected. 

“She was involved in an accident.” His dad had his hands clamped together on the table, “Kolivan is with her, and the doctors are pretty sure she’s going to stabilize, once she’s stable, they’re going to move her somewhere safer where she can recover for a bit, and then she’s coming here.” 

Keith’s ears started to ring, “oh.” 

“Kolivan promised that he’d call as soon as she was stable so he could give us more details.” His dad’s voice started to shake, and Keith kicked back into gear. This was just as hard for his dad as it was for him, he needed to remember that. Keith got up, sitting next to his dad and offering him a hand. They sat there for a while, his dad crying soundlessly and Keith just holding onto him. He wasn’t sobbing at least, and as Keith got up to make him something to eat, they got a bit of relief in Kolivan calling again. She was out of surgery, and doing well, and there was a sigh of relief from the both of them. 

Keith fed his dad and helped him do a few things in his room until Romelle came in for the day. He made sure to cautiously let her know about what was going on with his mom, knowing she could help his dad destress while he sank face first into his bed, trying to calm his own nerves. Eventually, Keith walked out into the livingroom to find Romelle sitting on the floor with his dad, looking over family photos. Honestly, Keith wasn’t sure how good of an idea it was, but he sat down with the two of them and talked about the things he remembered, or asked his dad where they were in a few of them. 

The next few days turned hectic fast. Keith had to go to another photoshoot and then a race, before coming back to help his dad with quite a few chores to help get the house ready for his mom to come home. Kolivan was keeping them updated, their phones on full volume at all times in case he called. Luckily, the photoshoot and hoverbike race left Keith with a good chunk of extra cash, making it easy for him to order amazon deliveries for things that were hard to go out and get. 

Honestly, it was small stuff anyway, but with his dad a few weeks away from the surgery still, and his mom about a week from coming home, it was easier to get the new bed sheets delivered and all the parts they needed to fix her favorite recliner. The last new thing they got though, his dad insisted that they drove out to pick it up themselves. His dad insisted that it was important enough that they had to go in person.

He didn’t expect the soft, sweet therapy dog that wagged their fluffy tail at the two of them, the trainer grinning and rapidly explaining to Keith’s dad all his training. They were also going to be coming by a few times a week for the first month or so to see how Kosmo was fitting into the family, but as Keith sat on the floor of the trainer’s home, hugging his new dog who looked to be just under a year old, Keith was sure that he’d fit right in. 

Even with the addition of Kosmo to the house, and the way he’d set his soft head in Keith’s lap to help calm him down when he got anxious, Keith was starting to tire. His anxiety was high since he’d cleared his schedule a bit for his mom’s arrival and his dad’s surgery, so now he had nothing to do on top of everything. He skimmed his nails over Kosmo’s head, checking out his soft fur when he thought about the fact that he hadn’t seen nor really talked to Shiro. 

Keith loaded Kosmo up in his car, taking his harness off so he knew he could just be a puppy for a little while and hang his head out the window as Keith drove them into town. He lead Kosmo into the coffee shop, introducing him to the owner and getting both his usual and Shiro’s order before he walked Kosmo to the mechanic’s shop. 

He stuck his head in first, finding Shiro at the counter and smiling a bit, “are you going to be mad if I bring a dog in here?” 

“What?” Shiro had his phone pressed to his ear, but he was looking at Keith. He must have been on hold. Kosmo stuck his head into the doorway despite Keith’s best efforts, and he decided he’d deal with Shiro yelling at him if Kosmo shouldn’t be there. It helped that Kosmo sat down next to Keith, wagging his tail and waiting when Keith asked him to, rather than trying to sniff everything like he normally would. 

Keith set Shiro’s coffee down on the counter as Shiro turned back into his phone, talking quickly with someone about some tires he needed. He took the coffee though, sipping on it as he finished whatever business conversation he was having. 

“Where did you get the dog?” Shiro looked confused, walking around the counter to get down and pet Kosmo. “What’s her name?” 

“My dad is calling him Kosmo.” Keith smiled as Shiro let Kosmo lick his face. “I figure he’ll tell me what he considers his name eventually.” 

Shiro quirked an eyebrow at Keith, but he was promptly distracted by Kosmo sticking his nose in Shiro’s face. “So where did you get the dog?” 

“My dad decided to get a therapy dog with my mom coming home.” Keith scratched Kosmo’s ears as he moved away from Shiro and carried on to sniff other parts of the entryway of Shiro’s shop. 

“Ah, is that why I haven’t seen you lately?” Shiro stood up, walking back to the counter to pick up his coffee. “I figured when you gave me your bike I’d be seeing you daily.” 

Keith felt himself blush, sipping his coffee so he wouldn’t have to make eye contact. “I would have probably been around to check on it sooner, you’re right.” 

“At least you’re honest.” Shiro chuckled, turning to stop Kosmo from sneaking through the open door to the shop. “I can show it to you, but he should stay here.” 

“He’ll stay if I tell him to.” Keith looked down at Kosmo, “right boy?” 

Kosmo just stared at him and licked his nose. 

“That’s very reassuring.” Shiro didn’t seem convinced, but he poked around behind the counter and found a blanket, setting it on the floor as if it would entice Kosmo to stay in the entryway. Once he’d done that, and Keith had told Kosmo to stay, they slipped back into the actual shop where Shiro had his bike, absolutely taken apart. 

“Holy shit.” Keith looked over all the tiny parts, laid out on a table which Shiro had covered in butcher paper, tracing each part he’d laid out with a quick scrawl of what it was and where it went next to them. “Oh my god.” 

“I know it looks bad right now, but I promise it’s fine.” Shiro looked panicked, and if Keith had to guess, it was probably because he was suddenly mirroring Keith’s own panic. 

“N-No.” Keith swallowed his anxiety and shook his head, “I, I know. I just, didn’t quite expect it to be in so many pieces so quickly.” 

Shiro nods, “yeah, I uhm. Kind of haven’t done something like this in a while and got excited. Well and also, it’s been two weeks.” 

“Yeah, I guess it has been two weeks.” The shock was starting to wear off, "so then, is the plan to try to use the original parts?"

Shiro nodded, "yeah, as much as I can, this will help me catalogue what I need to track down."

"That was kind of how we did it last time." Keith rubbed the back of his head, "only, I don't think we were nearly this organized." 

Now that he really looked at it, Shiro had everything laid out with a spot to keep it until he needed it again. It seemed like he was putting a lot of time and care into it, which was nice. Keith hadn't really expected him to care so much about it. 

“I’d be in a little bit of trouble if I kept losing parts on projects customers are paying me for.” Shiro smiled at him, and god it make Keith’s knees wea unexpectedly. Shiro rarely came off smug, even if he’d pissed Keith off when they first met, Keith wouldn’t have really called the way he was acting smug. Something about this was comfortably confident, and in a way it almost felt flirtatious. 

Keith tried to button up that reaction, he felt like his desperation might be showing as he nodded, “that’s a good point.” 

“So do you trust me that it’s okay it’s in this many pieces?” Shiro still had that lilt in his voice, Keith just tried not to swoon. He couldn’t act so desperate if he actually wanted a chance to date Shiro. He was pretty sure that’s what he was trying to do, date Shiro. 

“I trusted you from the start.” Keith was sure that Shiro knew Keith wouldn’t have given this bike to just anyone. Even still, Shiro didn’t really seem like he believed Keith, making a non-committal noise and looking over the bike again. 

“Well, even if you don’t need it, I’ll start sending you email updates with photos so I don’t startle you too hard again.” Shiro crossed his arms, looking back at Keith. “If you’re not going to be able to stop by as much as I’d thought you would.” 

“What, did you miss me?” Keith chuckled, but he caught the subtle way Shiro’s eyes seemed to change. Of course, it only lasted a second, but he was pretty sure it was there. Before Shiro could make some snappy comment this time, Keith added, “if you did we could always get lunch again. I could use an excuse to be out of the house a while longer.” 

He could hear his heart pounding in his ears. Keith was pretty sure he’d never had this much confidence in his entire life and he certainly didn’t know where it was coming from or how to handle it. All he knew was that he wanted to date Shiro, and even with his anxiety at an all-time high, he somehow apparently also found the words he needed to express that. 

Shiro rolled his eyes, but there was a smile still on his lips, “I’ll gladly take a free lunch, but how are you going to get Kosmo into Flemming’s?” 

“Well.” Keith looked back at the door where he could see Kosmo carefully watching them through the safety-glass window alongside it. “Either Hunk’s there on his own or we eat in my car.” 

“How about we take my car so we don’t have to sit in your tiny Honda with your giant dog while we eat?” Shiro said it as if it was a question, but he was already walking to get his keys. 

“Wait, wait, I can’t put my dog in your car.” Keith waved at Kosmo a little bit, who seemed to now understand they were talking about him. Not that he barked or anything, but his ears perked. 

“Does he chew on things?” Shiro asked. 

“Well, no, but-” 

“Then it’ll be fine, the leather can handle some dog paws. Lock the front door for me?” Shiro made a gesture with his hand, “walk him around and meet me though, I don’t want him getting metal in one.” 

Keith sighed, “all right. But you can’t be mad at me if he scratches up the back seat.” 

Shiro didn’t reply, instead just opening the garage door. Keith slipped back into the entryway, smiling at Kosmo and leaning down to cup his face gently. 

“Please do not ruin this guy’s car. I feel like that will ruin my chances with him.” Keith watched as Kosmo sniffed at his face and blinked. He felt like his request was understood. 

He locked the handle of the front door, checking to make sure it locked behind him when it shut. Kosmo trotted alongside him easily, sniffing a few things as they went past. He understood right away when Keith opened the back door for him, watching him hop into the car and wincing. Kosmo also did the thing that he did to Keith whenever he got into the car with him, which was promptly set his head next to the headrest for scratches. Only he did it to Shiro this time. 

“Hey buddy.” Shiro just smiled, scratching Kosmo’s head and looking at Keith as he got into the car. “See, he fits much better in here.” 

“Did you see him in my car?” Keith asked. 

“I happened to notice you drive by.” Shiro closed the garage door and started towards Flemming’s. 

“You picked out my tiny Honda among all the tiny Hondas in town?” Keith quirked a brow art him. Now it kind of seemed like Shiro was using driving as an excuse to keep his eyes forward. Keith really only noticed because Shiro normally kept a single hand on the wheel and the other laying against the window, or out of it if he had it open, and leaned back in a relaxed way as he drove. Now he had both hands on the wheel and he sat up straight like an army officer had told him to stand at attention. 

“You’re the only one I’ve seen that has the sport model.” Shiro kept his eyes on the road. 

“Matt and I have the same car,” Keith said. 

“Do you?” Shiro hummed, “I hadn’t noticed.” 

Keith quirked an eyebrow at Shiro again, but he left it be, for the moment. Especially since Kosmo chose that moment to set his head next to Keith’s headrest for scratches. Keith really couldn’t resist petting Kosmo. 

“Is your dad having surgery soon?” The edge in Shiro’s posture had gone somewhat, but he still had two hands on the wheel. He didn’t look entirely comfortable asking the question if Keith was being honest, which Keith could kind of understand. The topic could bring up a whole lot of bad. 

“Yeah, a bit after my mom gets back.” Keith smiled at Kosmo and then glanced at Shiro’s arm slightly. He wondered why he wanted to know. 

Shiro nodded, “you should buy some aquaphor. The doctors won’t really tell you how much the scar tissue along the implant can hurt. It helps.” 

“Oh. Thank you for telling me.” Keith blinked for a moment, “is there, is there anything else I should know?” 

“Well.” Shiro glanced at him now and seemed to consider it. “Mine is a little older, the technology has gotten better so this might not be the case for him. I had a lot of phantom pain like my arm was itchy, the only thing that fixed it was to feign putting lotion on my arm.” 

“How did you do that?” Keith wasn’t really sure how to fake putting lotion on something. 

“Sometimes I just actually put lotion on my arm,” Shiro said, “it wouldn’t hurt it. Otherwise, I used that spot cleaning stuff they give you. I’ll admit, it was worse when I didn’t take my meds on time.” 

“On time?” Keith hadn’t really heard a lot about the surgery yet, he was taking time off for it, and he figured he’d learn it then, but this seemed like better information. It was coming from someone he trusted for one thing, and for another, Shiro had experienced it. 

“You need to take it at the same time every day, I didn’t take that seriously enough at first.” Shiro held up his hand for a moment, looking it over for a moment and then his eyes went back to the road. 

“That’s good to know.” Keith pulled out his phone, writing that down really quick. He could convince his dad pretty easily to set an alarm and just carry the pill bottle with him. Keith thought for a moment and then looked at Shiro, “can I ask you something kind of personal that you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to?” 

Shiro looked concerned, but he nodded, “yeah, I guess?”

“The medications in the basket in your house, were they all for your arm?” Keith just wanted to know how many he’d need to help his dad manage. 

“Oh.” Shiro actually looked relieved to Keith’s surprise. “No, they started me on five, but one was an antibiotic I only took for a few weeks, and then there was another I only took for a year. To be honest, a lot of those bottles are pain medication from before the surgery.” 

“Really?” Keith realized he had no reason to ask that, and promptly tried to cover himself by adding, “aren’t they expired?” 

Shiro kind of chuckled, “some of them are, you’re right. I, uhm, because I lost my arm in such a violent way, I had bone fragments in my skin and it hurt a lot. I was sort of paranoid even after the surgery the pain wouldn’t be gone. But it was.” 

“Oh, that’s.” Keith thought about it for a moment. For a while after he’d had top surgery, he’d thought that the pain would never end, he hadn’t expected just how much it would hurt and for how long. But it did fade. “That’s more than fair honestly.” 

“Thanks for validating my anxiety,” Shiro joked. Somewhere in the tone of his voice, Keith could tell it really wasn’t a joke. 

They pulled into the parking lot at Flemming’s though, and upon discovering that Hunk was there with his dad, they ordered burgers so they could sit in the car and eat. Kosmo sitting very still in the back seat as if he were trying to restrain himself from begging. 

Somehow the rest of their conversation stayed light, Keith yelling at Shiro for sneaking Kosmo fries when he wasn’t looking and Shiro calling him a hypocrite when Keith fed Kosmo the last bite of his burger patty. It felt a lot like they were on a date, and the way Shiro smiled at him made his heart do this stupid fluttery thing. It was something that Keith was really starting to like. 

“When is your mom going to be home anyway?” Shiro asked, “she’s deployed right now, right?” 

Keith nodded, “She is. Last I heard, she’ll be back next week so long as they can get all the transit worked out. Which you know, you’d think the military would be able to do.” 

Shiro huffed an awkward laugh, “I think I’m a testament to the military not being able to do anything right.” 

“Really?” Keith quirked a brow at him, and Shiro tilted his head. 

“You don’t know? I thought everyone in town knew by now.” Shiro sounded bitter, so Keith just shook his head because he wasn’t sure if he’d accidentally stepped on the wrong subject. “Oh.” 

“You don’t have to tell me.” Keith didn’t need to know. “It’s probably just because I wasn’t living in town at the time, and I was pretty disconnected from the whole world when I was in Long Beach. I didn’t have a computer or a phone for most of the time I lived there.” 

Shiro looked confused, like he was doing some math in his head, “Wait, how old were you when you moved to Long Beach?” 

“I was sixteen,” Keith said. 

“And your parents didn’t show up and drag you back home?” Shiro asked. Keith shook his head, he wasn’t really proud to say what he said next, but it was the truth. 

“I made sure they couldn’t.” He started to bag up the trash from the burgers, not really looking at Shiro. “I sent them letters, so they’d know I was alive, but I kept myself well hidden.” 

It sounded really cool when he said it like that, but really he used the few hundred dollars he had to get a fake ID and started transitioning. He was a lot harder to find when they were looking for a girl and he didn’t look like one anymore. Frankly, it helped as much with his Dysphoria as it did his fake identity. That was even where he’d gotten the name Keith, it was just the name the guy who’d gotten the ID gave him and he decided he liked it. 

“Wow.” Shiro looked Keith over a second. “Somehow that made my thing seem like less of a big deal.” 

Keith chuckled, awkward for the moment, “I, yeah, back then it seemed like the only option. Now that I think about it, it was a little bit extreme.” 

“You kind of strike me as someone who is a little extreme by nature.” Shiro picked up the shake he had sitting between his legs. “But, after the accident, the Garrison tried to blame it on me. Charge me with manslaughter and claimed that I had drugs in my system during the flight.” 

“Holy shit.” Keith somehow never even heard about that. Shiro just nodded. 

“I spent my whole recovery shackled to my bed.” he said, “My grandfather hired a lawyer who tore them to shreds. It turned out that someone had falsified the records because they’d been using us in unauthorized testing.” 

“Okay, I think someone needs to teach you about severity levels as far as bombs like that go, because I feel like that was way worse on you than mine was on me.” Keith finished gathering all the wrappers and looked back at Shiro, who sort of had a smile on his face.

“Yeah, I guess getting falsely accused of killing your classmates and friends is a bit worse than running away,” Shiro said. It came off like his usual dry humor, and Keith was surprised that Shiro didn’t seem more awkward about this at all. Then again, he might have been used to talking about it by now. Sometimes you had to find humor in things or they’d eat you alive, even if that humor is dark. 

“I would say so.” Keith nodded and tried to picture Shiro in his head. He knew that Shiro had been in pictures all over the high school for the short time he went, but really, Keith didn’t spend a lot of time there, nor did he spend a lot of time looking at pictures. He could hear people saying Shiro’s name in his head, but he couldn’t picture what he looked like when he was younger. Didn’t several places in town have shrines for him from when he was on the Baseball team or something? Keith couldn’t have been this blind. 

“What has you thinking so hard?” Shiro asked. 

Keith shook his head, “Sorry. To be honest, I was kind of wondering how I managed to be so under a rock I missed all that news.” 

“Well, you were in hiding.” Shiro pointed out, starting his car as he told Kosmo to lay down so he could see through the rearview mirror. “And if you weren’t in town, there probably weren’t people constantly talking about it.” 

“You’re right.” Keith rubbed the back of his head, still trying to picture a young Shiro in his head, “Either way, at least you’re not in jail?” 

“You know, I say that to myself a lot when I drop lots of small parts in the shop.” Shiro said it in a way that kind of made Keith believe him. 

“I say ‘at least my dad doesn’t hate me’ when I do things like that.” Keith looked back at Kosmo briefly, and contorted himself so he could crank the window down for him a little bit. When he sat back down, he caught Shiro smiling at Kosmo in the mirror for a second. 

“Your dad doesn’t strike me as the type of person that could hate his own kid.” Shiro didn’t seem to mean anything by it, but it hit him in the chest like a sack of bricks. 

“I know that now.” His voice came out pinched on accident, clearing his throat and trying to pretend it was like he was coughing or something. 

“Sometimes that’s not easy to know.” Shiro shrugged, “Even if other people know it.” 

Keith glanced at him, kind of nodding, “Yeah.” 

They rode in silence for a while, but it didn’t feel awkward, it just felt sort of, still. At least to Keith, Shiro might have felt awkward. Though, he didn’t seem it when he turned to Keith just in front of the back garage door of his shop.

“Here, give me your phone.” Shiro held out his hand, and Keith for some reason instinctively unlocked it before putting it in his hand. That turned out to be a good decision though, because Shiro was putting his number in Keith’s phone and then he texted himself. 

“You know you’ve had my number on all the shop documents, right?” Keith took his phone back when Shiro offered it to him. 

“It would be creepy to take your number off of the shop documents and text you out of the blue.” Shiro quirked an eyebrow at Keith, and suddenly he realized this wasn’t about his bike. 

“Oh.” Keith just blinked at his phone for a second. 

“In case you need anything,” Shiro said, “or if you have more questions about your dad’s surgery.” 

“Oh, uh, thank you.” Keith suddenly felt stupid for thinking that Shiro might have been giving him his number for other reasons. Reasons that were more personal. 

“Thanks for lunch.” Shiro seemed to be stepping around the way Keith had gotten awkward. He also turned back to reach out for Kosmo and scratch his ears. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.” 

Keith nodded, and said goodbye before he gathered Kosmo. He waved at Shiro a little as he pulled back into the shop, walking Kosmo around to his car and getting him to hop into the front seat. He was pretty good about not trying to climb into Keith’s lap, so he figured just for the ride home it would be fine. 

He rolled the windows down in lieu of the air conditioning, watching the road carefully as he drove back to his little desert house. It seemed like time flew again, from the moment he stepped into the garage and let Kosmo out of the car, to loading up his Dad and Kosmo in the car to drive to the airport in Phoenix. Oddly enough, Shiro had been texting him in the meantime, Keith wasn’t really complaining at all, it just surprised him. They never talked about anything extraordinary, but they did talk, which was nice. 

To both his, and his Dad’s surprise, his mom walked off the plane in her uniform with only her arm in a sling. Keith sort of expected her to be more hurt, he was happy she was better than he expected. It did occur to him though that this was her first time seeing him in person since his transition, and that made him all the more nervous. 

She pressed Keith into his Dad’s chest as soon as she got close enough so she could hug them both at the same time, kissing Keith’s head while his dad wrapped them up in his arms. They used to do this to him a lot when he was little, and suddenly Keith felt like he might cry. He didn’t realize he already was. His parents were too. 

His dad sat in the back seat of the car with Kosmo while Keith drove them all home, listening to the two of them talk and adding things here or there. His mom wanted to know more about his time in Long Beach, and at some point, he admitted that he was surprised she wasn’t mad at him. 

“Keith, it’s all over now, I’m just happy to have you back.” His mom pushed his hair back on his head, “you’re still my baby.” 

Keith turned red, and his dad got a good laugh out of it. Getting home felt like it went fast, they stopped at Flemming’s to get food, and as soon as they got into the kitchen, his dad striped off the prosthetic leg he’d had on. He could only wear it for so long before it started to hurt, something about the way his bone was broken during the fire caused the pain. It would be over soon though, Keith reminded himself of what Shiro had said, that the pain would go away. 

There was a solid couple of days where all they did was spend time together. Keith had cleared his schedule, which he realized sounded like a really good idea at the time, but it occurred to him at some point that his parents hadn’t been alone together in a long time. He didn’t really have anywhere else to be though, and then he realized he did have one place. 

“Can I ask a bit of a weird favor?” Keith watched his phone after he’d sent the text, waiting anxiously. 

“How weird?” 

“Not too weird.” 

“Then sure.” 

“Can Kosmo and I stay in your guest room for a night? I feel like I should let my parents spend some time alone.” Keith watched the screen again, he could have easily asked Pidge, or even Hunk and Lance for that matter, but this was a really good excuse to spend time with Shiro. 

“Yeah of course. Tomorrow?” Shiro’s words ran through Keith’s head a few times and he couldn’t really believe it. It was that easy? 

“Tomorrow would be good, if that’s not too soon.” Keith wanted to be at least somewhat polite about this. They talked a while longer about details and since the next day was a Saturday, Shiro suggested that they go to an antique car show. That way Keith had an excuse to be out most of the day and spend the night at Shiro’s under the guise of it being far away. For some reason, it felt like a date again, hidden under five other reasons and explanations for spending time together. 

Keith could deal with that, and maybe they could finally have an actual conversation about this. The next afternoon, he loaded Kosmo up in the car after telling his parents he was going to the car show with Shiro and that he’d be back late. Also Kosmo needed a break from his duties, which they agreed with and had been saying for days, so he was taking him. Both of them looked sort of suspicious, though they didn’t argue with him or stop him. 

He met Shiro at his shops, switching to Shiro’s car. It made the most sense given that they were going to an antique car show. Shiro seemed wanted to show the car off, which Keith understood, he would want to show it off too if he’d done it. The show was about an hour away, and apparently the whole street was blocked off for people to walk around while it was going on, so Kosmo could hang out with them most of the day. 

What Keith didn’t expect was one, the fact that this was borderline a business trip for Shiro who gave his card to nearly every older dude who seemed interested in his work, and two, just how many little old men showed up at the event just to check on Shiro. They all said his grandfather told them they were obligated to once he was gone. Shiro laughed every time, but Keith started to notice after the second or third waddled away after speaking with him that he looked sad. Keith wasn’t sure he’d be able to deal with too many more of them, so he got Kosmo to put his front paws on Shiro’s chest and do the puppy smile at him. 

“Want to get something to eat and walk around a little?” Keith gently took Kosmo into a sort of hug to get him off Shiro, pretending he didn’t totally ask him to do that. Shiro seemed to see through him, but he did nod and smile. 

“Yeah, I keep seeing people walk by with elotes, let’s find that.” Shiro pocketed his business cards and double checked that he’d locked the car before they started down towards what looked to be a street fest they’d set up. Shiro explained that they did this every year, stopping at a vendor to buy Kosmo a fancy dog treat which looked like a cookie Keith could eat himself. 

“You’re going to put on weight if I let Shiro watch you for any period of time, bud.” Keith watched Kosmo intently stare at Shiro, not paying attention to Keith at all. 

“No one would know if he put on a little weight, he’s fluffy.” Shiro found the little old man selling elote from a cart and got into line, unwrapping the treat he’d bought Kosmo. Kosmo waited patiently, his tail beating rapidly on the ground as he sat for Shiro. He’d figured out that he got treats fast if he sat like a good boy for them. 

“It’s still not healthy for him.” Keith crossed his arms, holding onto Kosmo’s leash as Shiro gently tossed the treat to him, and he hopped up to catch it. Shiro pouted at Keith, kneeling down to scratch Kosmo’s ears and tell him what a good boy he was. 

“I’ll take him on my morning run tomorrow? He can do three miles, right?” Shiro stood to follow the line as it moved up, Kosmo now on his heels in the off chance Shiro had more treats for him. 

“I mean.” Keith looked down at his dog, “I think he could, but it might be too warm for him to do that.” 

Shiro looked down at Kosmo’s fluffy face and smiled in a way that made Keith’s stomach flutter again. “I think, you’re probably right, but I think there’s a way you can calculate if it’s safe to take him for a run.” 

“Oh?” Keith watched Shiro pull out his phone, nodding as he did it. 

“They use it for sled dogs, he looks like he has a double coat.” Shiro started to google it. 

“Why do you know about any of this?” Keith asked, pausing to turn to the person selling elote and buying one for each of them since Shiro was no longer paying attention. Shiro thanked him as he took the ear of corn from Keith though, still looking at his phone. 

“My first roommate at the Garrison was from Alaska and raised sled dogs.” Shiro found a bench for them to sit on, Kosmo quickly lying down in front of them because he figured out he wasn’t getting the corn they were eating. Keith was sometimes surprised when Shiro talked about the Garrison fondly, then again, he was there for a long time and it wasn’t like everyone in the whole place was necessarily involved in what happened to him. He just knew that if it was Keith, he’d be bitter about the situation. 

“That explains it.” Keith started trying to eat his elote, struggling a bit, because he’d never actually gotten the kind straight on the cob. He’d always gotten it in a little cup, but he wasn’t really complaining because it was still really good. “What’s it say anyway?” 

“You have to divide the temperature by the humidity and then go from there.” Shiro slipped his phone back into his pocket so he could eat. “So you have to do it right before you take them to run.” 

“You’ll have to show it to me later.” Keith patted Kosmo on the head as he popped up to set his head in Keith’s lap and beg for the corn in his hand. “It would be good to have it on hand.” 

Shiro nodded, and they chatted there for a while, both of them eating and shooing Kosmo off of them when he’d start to beg. Eventually, they went and found more food since the corn wasn’t enough for either of them, so Kosmo wound up with some barbeque chicken for his trouble. When they got back to Shiro’s car, Shiro was back to handing out cards and schmoozing with people about repairing their classic cars. There seemed to be fewer little old men coming in to check on Shiro and talk to him about his grandfather, which made the day feel faster. 

“We can either stay and find food at the festival to watch the fireworks.” Shiro wandered up to Keith as he put Kosmo in the back seat of Shiro’s car and closed the door. “Or we can go somewhere else for dinner.” 

“Let’s go somewhere else.” Keith patted Kosmo’s head as he stuck it out the window between them, “I’m not sure how he’ll react to fireworks.” 

Shiro relaxed slightly as Keith said it, “good because I’m not a big fan either.” 

Keith frowned, watching Shiro turn around to get to the driver’s side of the car, getting in. He followed Shiro into the car, closing the door and looking over at him. 

“You know, you can tell me if you don’t like something like fireworks.” Keith looked Shiro over carefully, watching the way he seemed to bristle before shrugging it off. 

“It’s not,” he pauses, “it’s not an always thing. It’s hard to explain. I used to like them.” 

Keith hummed softly, “Okay, I’m sorry. But just, tell me if you don’t want to do something. I promise I won’t be mad.” 

“I know, I know.” Shiro glanced at Keith, and even with as awkward as he looked at the moment, Shiro did seem to smile at him. “I promise, I will.” 

Keith smiled back at him and left it be, pulling out his phone at Shiro’s instruction to find somewhere they could eat nearby. Neither of them really wanted to wait until they got back to Shiro’s to eat, so Keith found a Chinese restaurant a few towns away where they hopefully wouldn’t be able to hear the fireworks. Kosmo was lying peacefully in the back seat, even after they’d stopped, so Keith deemed it okay to leave him in the car, especially since it wasn’t so hot with the fall coming. Shiro opened the windows just a crack, just to be extra cautious. 

And then it was quiet, they sat down at the restaurant, both a little tired from the sun and the people, Shiro looked like he had some kind of sunburn on his face. It was obscured somewhat by the scar across his nose. Keith could feel the heat blooming on his skin as well, and he knew his dad was going to bother him about wearing sunscreen more when he got home. It felt nice though, the two of them a little raw and tired and quietly sitting at a table together. 

They decided to share food, knowing that would be the best option given the size of the portions they saw going to other tables. Shiro ordered some fruity drink that was far stronger than it should of been when he let Keith have a sip of it. So they wound up splitting that too, Keith taking sips whenever the server wasn’t looking. Even if he was only about a month away from being of age, he didn’t want to get them or himself in trouble. 

Both of them nearly ate their weight in fried rice and crab rangoons, jokingly fighting over the last one before they wound up splitting it, Shiro biting off half and giving the rest to Keith. They still wound up with food to come home with, the chicken they had ordered proved far too much on top of the copious amount of potstickers they also ordered. 

As they walked back to Shiro’s car, he held out the keys to Keith, waving them just a little bit, “want to drive home? I had a lot more to drink than you did.” 

“I can, do you really trust me with your car?” Keith took the keys, and smiled when Shiro just nodded and got into the passenger seat, immediately feeding Kosmo a piece of chicken from their leftovers. Keith didn’t mind, Kosmo seemed to be awake and a little restless now, so he made the trip home go as quick as he could since it seemed like he was getting hungry. 

Keith fed Kosmo as soon as they walked in the door and Shiro went into the living room, pulling up some streaming service so they could watch a movie. It was still pretty early in the night, Shiro handing Keith a beer as he got one for himself. When they had settled on a movie, tucked into the couch together with two more beers sitting on the coffee table so they wouldn’t have to go get more. 

They talked over the movie, just chatting to each other rather than actually paying attention to whatever was happening on screen. The more they did though, and Keith would swear on his life that this wasn’t on purpose, the closer they seemed to get physically. By the time Shiro brought him a third beer, they were nearly touching, a blanket now wrapped around Keith and Kosmo pressed against his leg, spread out over most of the rest of the comfortable sectional. 

He knew having another beer would push him over the edge into being drunk, he didn’t drink all that often, he was fairly small, and the beer Shiro had was some nicer stuff which had a higher alcohol content than the PBR Keith tended to favor. But he took it anyway, starting a new movie and sipping on his fourth. They hadn’t been drinking too quickly, and Shiro seemed perfectly fine, even as Keith got more and more foggy. Leaning into Shiro’s warmth was harder to resist, even with Kosmo’s warm head pressed on his leg. 

Keith wasn’t sure when he nodded off, but when he opened his eyes, Shiro was asleep too, his head in his hand and his other arm loose around Keith’s shoulders. He’d had it on the back of the couch most of the night, Keith knew he hadn’t done it on purpose, but it still made his stomach promptly tie in a knot. He didn’t want to wake Shiro up and force them to go to bed, but he also knew sleeping on the couch was a terrible idea. 

“Shiro.” Keith started to sit up, keeping his voice low just so he wouldn’t startle Shiro. To his surprise, Shiro pulled Keith closer, trying to keep him from getting up, mumbling something incoherent. Keith bit his lip, he knew better, but he let Shiro pull him back against his chest, closing his eyes again, and promptly fell back asleep. 

Everything was far more foggy when Shiro gently woke him up. It was definitely late now, and as Shiro shifted and tried to turn towards Keith, all he could bring himself to do was cling and mumble. He heard Shiro sigh, his fingers going through Keith’s hair and suddenly Keith was very awake. Keith didn’t make it obvious, just trying to act naturally half asleep as Shiro nudged him again gently. 

“C’mon, I’ll carry you if you don’t get up.” Shiro’s voice sounded so soft, and Keith’s half-asleep brain wanted nothing more than for Shiro to carry him up to the guest bedroom. So he didn’t move, he pretended to be asleep and clung. Shiro sighed again, shifting so he could get his arm under Keith’s back and the other under his knees. Kosmo made a noise when Shiro picked Keith up, “shh buddy. Promise I’m not hurting him.” 

Keith let himself fall against Shiro’s shoulder, naturally wrapping his arms around his neck in the way any sleepy person being carried like a princess would. He could hear Kosmo following, some shuffling as Shiro carefully edged around the coffee table and then he could tell they were on the stairs. 

When Shiro set him down on the sheets of the guest bedroom, Keith didn’t want to let this end, reaching out and clinging to one of his arms. He could still feel the alcohol in his system, and he was starting to think it might be affecting his inhibitions. But this wasn’t exactly a harmful request, holding onto Shiro’s arm and mumbling sleepily at him. 

“Stay. Please?” Keith rubbed his eyes at little and looked up at Shiro, finding him earnestly flushed and still leaning into Keith. He paused, his mouth open as he thought it over. 

“Keith, I–”

“Please?” Keith pouted at him, the beer giving him a newfound confidence. Then again, he had a sneaking suspicion that Shiro wasn’t disinterested in Keith. Not with the way he treated Keith like the only one who mattered sometimes. 

Shiro’s resolve seemed to walk right out of the room, and Keith wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol or how late it was, but Shiro moved Keith over and crawled onto the bed after him. Keith made quick work of pulling the sheets back, dragging them over him and Shiro so that he could curl up against him. He made sure the touch was light, if Shiro really wanted to leave, he could, but he settled his face against Shiro’s chest as Kosmo climbed into the bed after them. 

Keith didn’t say anything, he just took a few short, deep breaths and let himself fall asleep there, it was easy with how warm and soft Shiro felt against him. He knew it was stupid, he knew Shiro had no reason to be interested in Keith back, but Keith still sort of hoped when they woke up in the morning, clear of the alcohol, Shiro would still want him around. 

When he did wake up, Shiro was gone. But his shirt still on the floor next to the bed and Kosmo gone too gave Keith an idea of where he was. Plus, he could hear someone in the kitchen, and the sound of Kosmo’s nails on the hardwood. Shiro must have gotten up to feed him, leaving Keith to sleep and it made Keith feel warm even if he was alone in the bed. 

He got up, adjusted his clothes slightly since he’d slept in them, and went to the stairs, listening to Shiro hum and talk with Kosmo for a minute before he decided it was time to talk to him. Keith needed to at least get all of this off his chest, maybe after, Shiro might still want him. 

His anxiety settled into the pit of his stomach as he entered the kitchen, finding Shiro there, with Kosmo, cooking. "Good morning." 

"Morning." Shiro already sounded off, and suddenly Keith regretted everything he'd done the night before.

"That smells good, what is it?" Keith set his hands on Kosmo's head when he pressed heavily against Keith's legs. Running his nails down the middle of his head, Kosmo must have sensed how nervous Keith felt, because suddenly, Kosmo seemed to be in full therapy-puppy mode. Keith appreciated it, even if he knew Kosmo wasn't supposed to be working at the moment. 

"Just an omelet." Shiro glanced back at Keith now, his eyes lingering in a way that felt unusual. Keith bit his lip and decided that maybe he'd been wrong all along, and with that, he felt like maybe he should back down. "Want one?" 

Shiro turned back to the stove, and Keith settled himself at the kitchen table, "if you're offering to make me one." 

"Of course I am." Shiro chuckled, but it still sounded off, like there was an edge to it. Keith sat in the quiet of the kitchen for a long moment. 

"Hey uh." Keith started after a few minutes of awful silence. "I'm sorry about last night. I get clingy when I get drunk, it's sort of a character flaw."

Keith laughed, but Shiro's shoulders looked tense, all of him looked tense honestly. But he set the omelet he'd finished on a plate and to Keith's surprise, he set it on the ground for Kosmo. Kosmo seemed more than a little bit excited. 

"Listen, Keith." Shiro looked back at him like Keith had never seen him. Quietly ashamed and a sadness that Keith couldn't really place. It was like he hadn't done the thing that was going to break his heart yet, and suddenly, Keith realized why Shiro seemed so tense. 

"Wait, no." Keith stopped Shiro, he could already see where this was going, if Shiro was about to be self depreciative, Keith wasn't going to have that. "Before you say anything I don't care anymore, if you're going to turn me down, it's not going to be for some bullshit where you put yourself down. But that's what this is now, yes, I want to date you, that's why I was like that last night." 

Shiro's expression grew hard to read, stoney and barely moving like he wasn't processing what Keith had said. When he did open his mouth, nothing came out, he just stood there with his jaw hanging open for a second. Keith had a feeling he knew why. 

"That's what you were going to do, wasn't it?" Keith asked, feeling the desperation that he wasn't currently fucking any friendship they might have ever had entirely, "You were going to try to tell me we couldn't be together because you're too broken or something, right?" 

"Well." Shiro started and stopped, furrowing his brow and shaking his head like he was trying to shake thoughts out of his head. "Not exactly." 

"But it was part of it?" Keith felt like he had to press this, if he didn't, then Shiro would shut him down and this conversation would be over. 

"A little bit…" Shiro looked uncomfortable, maybe not uncomfortable, maybe unbalanced. It certainly seemed like he didn't know what to do with this. 

"Well, I'm telling you right now that's not a legitimate reason." Keith's palms were sweating, his breath felt short, but he pushed himself to talk. Forced himself to keep this up, forced himself to keep fighting for this because he knew it was right for him. For once in his life, he wasn't going to just run away. "Everyone has shit, so do I. You just don't see all of it, so you can't use the things you're afraid for me to experience as a reason not to be with me." 

Shiro backpedaled for a second and he put up a hand, "okay, okay, you're right, but that's not the only reason." 

"What other reasons do you have?" Keith felt like he had ice running down his spine, that Shiro might just not like him. He might have wanted to let him down easy and Keith made sure that wouldn't happen. Keith just tried to ignore the cold anxiety pooling in his stomach. 

"I." Shiro paused and actually, now, he just looked heartbroken. "You're _so_ young, Keith. And let me finish before you go off on me about that." 

Keith's shoulders fell, "Fine." 

"You're so young, and you deserve so much more than just." Shiro looked down at himself, at his arm, then at the kitchen, the house. "I have no where else I can go." 

"What do you mean?" Keith levelled his gaze on Shiro's face, but it was hard to keep looking at him like that. 

"Wherever else I go," Shiro said, "I'm a criminal. I might have won that court case, but the media tore me to shreds, everyone still thinks that I was on drugs." 

"So? I know that's not true," Keith said. 

Shiro frowned, "If we were together, if we moved somewhere else, people would know me. And they would hate me for what happened." 

"Then we won't move." Keith frowned, he didn't understand quite where Shiro was going with this. "I feel like this is breaking the self-depreciating rule." 

"I'm not being self-depreciative!" Shiro's voice made Keith jump, he wasn't being loud, but he'd never heard Shiro sound so ... angry? Or maybe frustrated, Keith wasn't sure. "It won't just affect me. I don't want to trap you here, having Takashi Shirogane around you, you'll never be treated well. The people here are even skeptical of me. This is my hometown!"

"I don't see why I shouldn't be there for you despite all of that, that's how caring about someone _works_ ," Keith snapped, "It's not like people here treat me much better anyway."

Half of them still called him by the wrong name. If they knew he was Kogane's kid, many of them dead named him. Even once his dad was using Keith. Shiro didn't look convinced, and Keith wasn't surprised, he wouldn't know, and Keith wasn't about to throw that on top of everything. Especially if it might send him running. For now, he just wanted Shiro to give him a chance. 

"Keith…" 

"I'm being serious Shiro." Keith's voice cracked. "I'm not stupid, I know it's probably not the same but they don't." 

Shiro seemed to soften, "No Keith, I believe you. I just don't think it's a good idea." 

Keith felt something in his stomach boil, bitter and rough as he shot out of his chair, he couldn't take this anymore. He didn't really think it would work, the fact that Shiro even let him get close seemed to surprise both of them. When he grabbed Shiro's face and tugged it down, Shiro didn't resist, but he also didn't really respond to the tight kiss Keith pressed on his lips either.

When he pulled back, it felt like Shiro followed his lips, and as much as Keith wanted to press in close again, he needed to talk. They needed to keep talking.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro hadn't expected Keith to wedge himself into Shiro's life the way that he did, but he can't really say that he's upset about it. He feels like he should do the right thing, tell Keith no, push him away, tell him about the racing, but he just can't when it comes to Keith. But something in the very back of Shiro's mind is telling him that he doesn't need to resist, that it will be okay if he just gives in to Keith, because it's Keith after all.

**Part Two**

Shiro took a nervous breath when he heard Keith stirring upstairs, his eyes going down to Keith’s fluffy dog so he could try to remind himself that this was a bad idea. All of it was a bad idea, and he knew that. He knew it from the moment Keith rolled under his garage door and begged Shiro to help him with his tire. 

The problem Shiro had now, as he listened to Keith start down the stairs, was that Keith was far too perfect. Young but certainly not naive, nice face, fiery eyes, lean muscles, dark hair which hit his shoulders, and such nice legs. Shiro earnestly didn’t know how Keith hadn’t killed him somehow with a pair of tight jeans that looked like he’d never washed them. 

None of that was even the worst part, Keith’s appearance made it hard for Shiro to not notice him, but Shiro had always been a disciplined person, he could resist anything that was just attractive. No, what had him wrapped around Keith’s little finger at this point was entirely Keith’s personality. The sharp tongue, resistance to bullshit, and sudden bouts of something Shiro could really only describe as soft and caring had taken Shiro by surprise and ripped him to shreds over the course of maybe a few months at the most. He couldn’t really say no to Keith anymore, everytime he knew that he should, Shiro just said yes anyway. And of course, somehow Shiro kept suggesting they spend time together, as much as he could. Because he didn’t know how to handle this. 

He was certain he’d never felt this way with Adam, and even before Adam, anyone Shiro had ever been with didn’t leave him like this. And before Shiro even found the words he needed to say, Keith had snuck down the stairs and into the kitchen, petting Kosmo who ran right up to him. 

Shiro tried, regardless, he really did try, Shiro tried to explain, but now Keith's hands were on his jaw, his lips just a little bit red from pressing such a rough kiss on Shiro, and his eyes more intense than Shiro had ever seen him. He knew this was the end of him, he knew that Keith wasn't going to let Shiro slip away and Shiro knew that if he let Keith wiggle himself in, that Shiro would let himself take Keith down with him.

"Tell me this doesn't feel right." Keith looked somewhere between angry and about to cry. Shiro wanted to reach out, to follow his lips and kiss him until he felt better, he wanted Keith to have everything in the world because he deserved it. He couldn't give it to him, he knew he couldn't. "Do you really want to give this up just because you're convinced I'll suddenly start caring about what other people think of me?" 

Keith wasn't crying yet, his big doe eyes staring up at Shiro as if he could fix everything. He didn't want Keith to cry, he didn't want Keith to ever look like he did now, or the way he looked when he told Shiro his mom had gotten hurt, or the harried mess he was the day he rolled under the garage door of the shop. Shiro broke, he leaned down and he pulled Keith back into the kiss. He didn't have the words for this because he knew it was a bad idea. 

He was still keeping things from Keith, there was all the public stuff Keith could have known about him if he googled Shiro's name. But the racing, it was dangerous and felt core to who Shiro was as a person lately. He couldn't give it up, but one race was all it took and Shiro could be gone forever if he wasn't careful. Keith didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve someone as hated as Shiro had become. 

But something bloomed in Shiro's chest when he kissed Keith again, feeling his arms go slack around his neck as he pulled him close. They only broke, panting and staring at each other, because Kosmo walked between them. 

"Do you want this?" Keith still sounded nervous and wary of the question. 

"I do." Shiro's hands found Keith's hips and then he realized that Kosmo was blocking him from pulling Keith closer. "I really do, I know I may have sounded-"

Keith shook his head, "No. It's okay, I understand. Let's just be careful with each other. We both still have a lot to learn about each other." 

Shiro nodded, leaning down to nudge Kosmo out of the way so he could pull Keith in close. "That's a good idea." 

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." Keith's voice sounded hoarse, like he was still getting over the nearly crying. 

"It's okay," Shiro said, "you were right after all." 

Keith smiled, settling his face square in the middle of Shiro's chest. Shiro set his face in Keith's hair naturally, just holding on for the moment. Kosmo wormed his way back between them, and at this point, Shiro just chuckled, patting Kosmo's head. 

"I can't tell if he's trying to encourage or discourage us." Shiro scratched Kosmo's soft head, he really was a smart dog. 

"I think he just wants someone to pet him." Keith pulled away from Shiro, smiling brightly as he knelt down to fluff up Kosmo's ruff and scratch under his chin. "Right buddy? You're just a big baby when you're not working." 

Shiro watched as Keith let Kosmo lick his face, feeling his chest get tight. He was so gone for Keith, seeing him with Kosmo just made it all worse. As Keith looked up at him, smiling with a sweet krinkle to the corners of his dark eyes, Shiro melted all over again. 

"He is," Shiro said, "he wouldn't let me leave for my run today without him, he just kept nosing at me, he even picked up his leash and brought it to me." 

Keith's whole face lit up, moving to sit on his butt as he laughed, Kosmo quickly taking the opportunity to lean in and lick his face again. "Oh buddy. I guess I need to start running." 

Shiro laughed, leaning down to smush Kosmo's face for a moment before he caught Keith in a small kiss, because he realized he could. He could feel the way that Keith froze up and melted, meeting Shiro evenly until he pulled away. 

"What do you want in your omelette?" Shiro stood up, heading back to the stove as Keith pressed his face into Kosmo. It was enough to make Shiro feel fluttery, giddy and excited to see Keith get flustered from small things. He couldn't help it and he gave himself to it. He might be in love. 

"Do you have spinach and ham?" Keith slung his arms around Kosmo's neck, watching Shiro from the floor still. Shiro just started whisking eggs, telling Keith he had both, so he mixed them both in when Keith confirmed that it was what he wanted. 

At some point, between making omelettes, eating them, and playing with Kosmo, Shiro caught Keith smiling at him. His head in his hand as he leaned on the table, his lips curling into a little grin when Shiro raised his eyebrows and said, "What?" 

Keith chuckled, "Do you want to go out next weekend?" 

"I have to be out of town for work next weekend." Shiro watched the pout immediately settle on Keith's face, but the race would be big money, he had to be there. "But I don't have to leave until Wednesday, if you don't mind going on a weeknight." 

"Oh." Keith perked right back up, which gave Shiro the impression the pout might have been at least a little superficial. "No, I don't mind. I have to be in Phoenix tomorrow, but I'll be back by Tuesday."

"Then how about Tuesday?" Shiro felt Kosmo press against his leg, reaching down to pet him as he and Keith worked out the details. He was having trouble resisting the urge to push Keith away still, he knew that it would be better for Keith if he did, but maybe, if Shiro was selfish just this once. Maybe it would be okay. 

“I’m going to head home.” Keith reached for Kosmo’s leash after they’d worked out plans to get dinner on Tuesday, so Shiro got up and followed him to the door. He watched Keith’s face turn up to him, Shiro’s eyes trailing to his lips without thinking, he couldn’t help himself. Something about Keith, all of his discipline went out the window, it made Shiro feel compelled to press Keith into the wall so Shiro could kiss the breath out of him. 

“Have a good day.” Shiro squeezed Keith’s arm gently, and he smiled as he watched Keith’s eyes flutter open, trying to follow Shiro’s lips as he pulled away. It made the butterflies start in Shiro’s stomach again, his eyes scanning Keith’s face as Keith smiled at him. 

“You too.” Keith set his hand on the door knob, hesitating for a moment as Kosmo stared at the front door, looking excited to go into the car. He hadn’t even turned away from Shiro yet, leaning forward peck Shiro on the lips again before he opened the door. “Thank you for yesterday, and today.” 

Shiro was pretty sure he blushed, feeling the heat rise to his ears, “of course.” 

Keith grinned, looking proud of himself for just a moment before he slipped out of the front door, loading Kosmo into his car and waving as he left. Shiro closed the door of his small home behind him, his chest tight and his hand pressing over his mouth for a moment. 

He liked Keith so much and now as he sat on his own, he wondered again if he was making the wrong decisions. Shiro fumbled for his phone, scrolling through the contacts and trying to think about who he could even talk to about this. Matt was just going to make sex jokes, and Allura knew Keith pretty well, so he wasn’t sure if that was a good idea just yet. She might get defensive of him, that or Shiro’s worst fear, remind him that his reputation will likely transfer. 

Shiro decided Matt was the best idea, and about thirty minutes after he sent the text, Matt was pounding on his front door. He immediately regretted trying to talk to someone about this, swinging the front door open only to have Matt barge in before Shiro could stop him. 

“Shiro! What the hell kind of text was that?” Matt shut the door behind him, “dating people who want to date you and you want to date is never bad!” 

Shiro groaned, “that’s not what I meant, Matt. I meant is, is it bad to date anyone knowing that people are going to—”

“Shush, no.” Matt grabbed Shiro’s shoulders, walking him over to the couch and getting him to sit down. “Did you talk to Keith about that?” 

“Well.” Shiro sat since he knew he wasn’t getting out of this now. “I did.” 

“And what did he say about it?” Matt sat down on the chair kiddie corner to the couch, it was actually where he always sat whenever he was at Shiro’s house. But now, it made Shiro feel like he was about to get lectured. 

“He said he was fine with it, but Matt I don’t think he really knows what any of it is.” Shiro rubbed his hands over his face, trying to calm himself down, “and the racing, he doesn’t even know about the racing. I’m.” 

“Okay, okay.” Matt put his hands up trying to gently get Shiro to stop. “Keith zips around on his hover bike like a mad man, I don’t think he’s going to be upset that you sometimes race cars and hover bikes.” 

Shiro frowned and tried to protest, but Matt cut him off again. 

“Just listen,” Matt says, “I know you probably don’t trust me, but I’ve known Keith as long as Katie has. If he says he’s okay with something, he really means it.” 

“I’m aware of that, Matt.” Shiro rubbed his temples, “I’m worried he doesn’t know what it means.” 

Matt sighed, “I don’t think _you_ know what it means, Shiro. I know people are sometimes very shitty to you, you’re valid for being worried about that. But Keith has his shit too, he’ll be able to handle it.” 

“That’s really easy for you to say.” Shiro frowned, but he wasn’t being combative anymore, he didn't have the energy. 

"Just trust me Shiro, the two of you are a good pair, don't feel guilty for wanting to be with someone." Matt smacked his shoulder gently, "You can't let what Adam said to you mess with your relationships now." 

Shiro glowered at Matt, "That's not what's going on." 

"Really?" Matt didn't sound convinced. "Then what is it?" 

"I'm really worried people are going to hurt him because of me." Shiro rubbed his metal hand, feeling the smooth, surgical steel and the soft pads on it that are meant to feel sort of like skin. People stared at it all the time, and then they'd see his face. They'd remember what the government said he did and whether they believed the court or not, they'd recoil. 

Matt frowned at him, "You deserve to be happy Shiro." 

"Thanks Matt." He sighed rubbing his face again, “I appreciate that but—”

“No ‘but’s!” Matt grabbed his shoulder and shook him, “No more, stop that or I’ll show up at your therapist’s office with you to make sure that you’re actually telling her about this!” 

“Fine! Fine, okay!” Shiro swatted Matt’s hand away, “I shouldn’t have texted you.” 

“You can be grumpy at me all you want. I’m still going to be here to tell you that you deserve to be happy.” Matt leaned back in his chair, settling his head in his hand and smirking, “But besides all of that, when is your next race? Do you need me to look at anything on your car?" 

Shiro nodded, "Yeah, if you can take a look at the computer. I'm hoping I can donate that money to the school like I was supposed to with the money from the last race." 

"Don't worry, no one will be mad that the anonymous donor, who didn't actually tell the school he’d be donating, decided to help a town hero instead,” Matt paused for a moment and then added, “because he's in love with his kid." 

Shiro shot Matt another sour look, one that was flustered under the guise of being annoyed. Matt just laughed at him, sufficiently pleased with himself.

"Do you have to give me shit every time you're here?" Shiro sighed and stood up, picking the blankets from the night before off the couch so he could wash them. 

"Yeah." Matt nodded, "That's like, half my job. But really, you know, if you told people-"

"Don't start that again," Shiro said, "That's not why I'm racing and getting the money. If it was, I would just use the money from the settlement for that." 

"I know, but you _are_ doing it and if you told people, they'd probably be less weird around you." Matt's eyes followed Shiro around the room, "Since I know you're long past listening to me about how dangerous it is to be racing for you." 

Shiro took a deep breath and sat down, looking at Matt, "I, maybe I'm not." 

"What? Really?" Matt stared at him, and then the realization washed over Matt's face, "Because of Keith?" 

Shiro nodded, looking down at the pile of blankets in his hands, they had Kosmo's fur all over them, and still felt warm in a way even though there was no way they could still be warm. He didn't know what else to say about the situation, he didn't want to stop racing, but the wrong hit to Shiro's arm could knock out his entire nervous system. He'd be dead in a few hours tops when his nerves stopped firing and his breathing gave out. 

"Wow, you've got it bad."

"Really, Matt?" Shiro glowered at him again, and this time Matt stood up and sat on the couch with Shiro. 

"Yes, really." Matt smirked as he hooked an arm around Shiro's neck and pulled him in close. His expression quickly gave way to a dorky smile, something he and his sister shared, "It's a good thing. If you stop racing so you can live a quiet life with Keith and his dog, no one will judge you. Talk to your therapist about it." 

"Why is talk to my therapist your go-to answer to everything?" Shiro narrowed his eyes at Matt. 

"Because I don't have any idea what I'm doing here, my advice is mostly uneducated and clouded in trying to make you feel better." Matt just grinned at Shiro, who suddenly felt very tired in comparison to how he felt a few minutes ago. 

"Thanks Mattie." Shiro pulled away from him, "You're a sap still." 

Matt laughed, "Coming from the person who was just staring at a blanket like it might still smell like Keith." 

"Oh fuck off!" Shiro felt his ears heat up, throwing the pile of blankets on Matt's head, which unfortunately didn’t muffle his laughter. He started up his stairs, he needed to shower and change the sheets in the guest room. 

"Okay, I'll see myself out!" Matt yelled up the stairs, Shiro could hear the laughter in his voice. "You're my best friend Shiro, I love you." 

“Please leave my house.” Shiro yelled back, leaning over the bannister as he did, “I love you too, buddy.” 

Matt grinned at him before waving and saying goodbye as he slipped out of the house, leaving Shior alone to contemplate his entire life. He decided quickly that maybe that wasn’t a good idea, choosing to round up things he needed to wash and take them to the laundry room. Cleaning helped calm him, but he hit a point rather quickly that there was no more cleaning to be done. 

So Shiro went out to his garage, sitting next to his race car and staring at it for a long moment before he popped it open and started in on the engine. He went through his checklist, making sure that the engine was thoroughly taken care of and clean.


	6. Chapter 6

Keith texted him about when Shiro had finished checks on his car, just a picture of Kosmo and a funny comment, which somehow settled Shiro’s nerves the rest of the way. Keith was always good at that, coming to him right when he needed it, without really knowing he was doing it. Shiro liked it a lot, but then again, when he really thought about it, he liked everything about Keith. Maybe Matt was right, and he should stop feeling guilty for wanting Keith around, for not pushing him away. 

He washed his hands, heading back into his house to shower and relax for a while. It didn’t take long for him to settle into a rhythm, talking to Keith, going to work, meeting up with Keith for a date, having Keith and Kosmo spend the night. Shiro felt like he blinked and six weeks had passed, the racing season slowed in the wake of the coming winter. Keith’s birthday was suddenly next week, that’s just how being an adult was. His grandfather had told him that once. 

Shiro’s last two races of the season had gone well though, and now, as he neared finishing Keith’s bike off for him, it seemed like his little shop suddenly had a name for itself. He wasn’t sure what Keith did exactly, but it was his understanding it involved his apparently sizable instagram following. Keith snapped a few pictures of his bike near completion, and all the sudden Shiro had people lining up to have him restore their old bikes. 

He certainly wasn’t complaining, he needed the extra work being in a small town even if he was the only locally-owned mechanic in the county, which mattered to the locals there, people weren’t about to drive thirty miles out of their way to get their oil changed. Now, he had a car and a bike in his shop at all times that he was in the middle of restoring, of course, Keith’s bike mattered the most to him. He quickly learned he shouldn’t have taken on a third project at the same time, even if the third was his boyfriend’s bike. Both his small shop and his own sanity suffered when he took more than two restoration projects at once. 

When Shiro opened his own instagram for the shop, figuring he should maybe start to edge back into social media after he’d avoided it for years post-accident, Kosmo wound up becoming a bit of a face of his posts. He kept sneaking into them, sitting in the window to the office, somehow getting into the shop, pressing his nose on the side of a car while Shiro was trying to take a picture of an engine block. At some point, Shiro just gave up, letting him get away with it, though, Keith started putting doggie-boots onto Kosmo before letting him into Shiro’s office even. 

Keith was around a lot too, both to check on his bike, and to bring Shiro coffee. With the race season slowing down, Shiro was at the shop a lot more and Keith was travelling to Phoenix a bit less, which meant Keith slept at his house more often. It was like he was beginning to become a fixture as well, like Kosmo was in the instagram posts. Whenever Shiro turned around, Keith was there with a smile, usually a cup of coffee, and a snarky comment about Shiro’s sweet-tooth. 

It all felt so natural, the way dating Keith quickly blossomed into a sweet relationship in just under two months. What threw Shiro off was the way they weren’t attached at the hip, Keith didn’t insist on constantly being around Shiro, letting him have days alone, even when they were both in town, occasionally going up to sleep in Shiro’s bed because he was tired, but Shiro wanted to finish whatever they’d started watching. He never followed Shiro into the shower, which honestly Adam used to do far too often for Shiro’s liking. It was weird, how well Keith seemed to understand him and respect his space. It was hard to imagine that Keith was so much younger than him, if he wasn’t still so wide-eyed and soft at times, Shiro could have easily mistaken him for thirty already. 

Though, sometimes, that made Shiro worry for him. Keith, when it really came down to it, didn’t really have much of a childhood because he ran away, and then he spent a few years caring for his father after losing a limb. It seemed like some of the pressure was off with his mom home, but Keith still worked to help support their family. Shiro couldn’t help but worry that Keith might feel like he missed out on things once he got to be Shiro’s age, even if Keith assured him it was really fine. 

Which led to Shiro probably slightly over-planning Keith’s birthday next week, and why he was now trying to convince Keith that he really needed to come to Shiro’s house first, without Kosmo, before they went out to dinner. The surprise party wouldn’t really work if Keith insisted that Shiro pick him up to “go to dinner” like Keith thought they were going to. 

“So why can’t I bring Kosmo?” This was the third time that Keith had asked in the last ten minutes of their phone call. 

“Because we’re going to a restaurant, and you don’t want to leave him alone at my place all night, right?” Shiro pressed his phone between his shoulder and ear, in the middle of making dinner. 

“Yeah I guess.” Keith paused for just a moment, “But why can’t you pick me up if we’re taking your car anyway?” 

“Because I have to meet a client late in the day and your house is out of the way of the restaurant.” Shiro had come up with what he felt were surprisingly good lies for this situation. He could practically hear Keith’s pout over the phone though. “And I won’t have time to shower before I pick you up otherwise.” 

“Where are we even going again? Nothing worthwhile around here is out of the way of my house.” Keith was pulling something out of a plastic bag from what Shiro could hear, based on the awooing from Kosmo, it was probably a dog treat. 

Shiro laughed, “I promise, it’s worthwhile, and it’s still a surprise.” 

“Well, how nice should I dress?” Keith asked. “Since you won’t tell me where we’re going.” 

“Nice jeans, button down, nothing super fancy.” Shiro would feel bad if Keith came dressed in slacks to a surprise party where almost everyone is probably going to be in jeans. 

“I don’t own nice jeans, I have black jeans in varying levels of skinny based on how long I’ve had them.” Keith still sounded like he was grumbling, but Shiro just laughed.

“Just come as you always are. You look good in every pair of jeans I’ve ever seen you in.” Shiro had to turn his phone on speaker and set it down so he could fan some smoke out of his kitchen. He wasn’t paying close enough attention to how hot his pan was. 

“You’re too sweet.” There was a moment of quiet on Keith’s end, “Did you put me on speaker because you burnt something again?”

Shiro sighed, “Yeah, chicken, olive oil, the same thing I always do.” 

“You’ve really got to stop turning the burner up so high, babe.” Keith at least sounded amused now. Honestly, Shiro could make a really good omelette, but all of Keith’s cooking put him to shame. Apparently when he’d lived alone before Pidge lived with him, Keith didn’t have enough money to really eat short of squeezing every last morsel out of every meal he made and ingredient he bought which apparently translates to getting good with dried spices to provide variety to your fourth sautéed chicken breast of the week. It also means that sometimes he justifies eating things like boxed mac and cheese with canned green beans in it, which Shiro just can’t get behind. 

“I know.” Shiro whined, picking the phone back up and turning off speaker, “It’s hard to remember when I’m on the phone with you, your voice is too distracting.” 

“Don’t try to be cute to distract from the fact that you can’t cook.” There was a smile to Keith’s voice, and it made Shiro smile too as he slapped the burnt piece of chicken he had onto his pile of lettuce. 

“But you’re such a good cook baby, I’ll just do the dishes and then I won’t need to worry about cooking.” Shiro grinned, turning his voice almost overly sweet. 

He’d discovered something recently, he could basically break Keith if he did two things, the first was the sweet voice, the second was imply he wanted to be together long-term. Which wasn’t a lie in any capacity, so Shiro felt like it was an okay joke to play on Keith for now. At some point, Keith would understand he was being serious, that it only took a few weeks for him to realize he could marry Keith. It wasn’t something he’d suggest they do at the moment, but it was something he knew he could do with Keith if Keith wanted it too. 

“Oh.” Keith’s voice grew so small and sweet and sheepish. He cleared his throat and promptly went, “Well, maybe. Anyway, I need to, uhm, take Kosmo out. I’ll text you later?” 

Shiro loved when Keith stumbled over himself a little. He really, he might be a hopeless romantic, but Keith was just so cute like this. 

“Yeah, have a good night baby.” Shiro kept the sweet voice, hearing Keith’s hand hit his face over the phone made him feel just a tiny bit bad. It was a soft noise, he could picture Keith holding the phone to his ear and pressing his hand over his face like he sometimes did when Shiro flustered him in person. 

“Goodnight, Shiro.” Keith promptly hung up the phone, leaving Shiro to smile at it as he set it down on the table. He was honestly excited that Keith still seemed to be off his trail about the surprise party, and as he fielded messages from Pidge and Hunk who were helping, he had a feeling this was going to be a good time. 

Shiro ate dinner and set about ordering far too many balloons from a party store and then realized Allura had said she’d pick them up, and now she was going to have to shove them all into her car. He sent her an apology ahead of time, and answered a call from Hunk since he needed to know what kind of cake he should be making. Pretty soon, he had almost everything figured out with a week left for him to clean his whole house. 

He had to buy alcohol too though, and dodge all of Keith’s questions about what they were doing for his birthday. Shiro also bought new curtains for his front window, just to make sure Keith wouldn’t be able to see anything when he was walking up to the house. 

Keith had started to get suspicious the day before the party, his questions getting more direct, but Shiro managed to keep him off his tail. The day of, Shiro took off work to make sure everything was perfect, just banking on the fact that Keith would be coming home from Phoenix in the middle of the day, and hopefully wouldn’t try to stop off at the shop before going back to his house. But then Allura and Hunk were there with balloons and decorations and a cake, and Shiro hardly had time to think. His house was immaculate, Keith was texting him pictures of Kosmo before he left the house, and people were flooding in. 

Shiro had certainly noticed something about Keith in planning this, he didn’t have a ton of close friends that lived in the area, but all of his friends would pretty much do anything for him. Allura and Romelle had been quick to offer to pay for parts of the party, which Shiro rejected of course, but eventually broke and let them plan the food. Allura even showed up with balloons Shiro didn’t order, some of which were big letters spelling out Keith’s name and others had been filled with air instead of helium, and Romelle had a net which she promptly started rigging above Shiro’s front door so they could drop balloons on Keith as he came in. 

Hunk offered to make a cake without Shiro having to even ask, immediately talking about making cookies too, for anyone who doesn’t want cake. He showed up to Shiro’s house with a cake that had “Happy Birthday Keith” written in red icing. Hunk promptly started to explain to Shiro that it was strawberry shortcake with whipped cream frosting and talking about slicing tons of strawberries as Shiro desperately moved shelves around in his fridge to fit the cake into it. 

Even Lance of all people showed up with a set of cocktail shakers and a big drink dispenser which he and Hunk promptly started to make some kind of bourbon, iced tea, and lemonade concoction. Shiro wasn’t about to complain, it looked overly sweet and right up his alley. Plus, with the bourbon, it would be nice and strong which was always fun. Anyone who got too drunk could just sleep somewhere in his house and it would be fine, so they wouldn’t have to worry about driving. As the rest of their friends showed up, Allura even started collecting car keys and asking if they parked on the next block like they asked. 

Soon, they had a good crowd, the front door unlocked and Keith let Shiro know he was on his way. They gathered in the living room, facing the front door with the windows closed and waited for the sound of Keith’s hover bike. It felt like an eternity, waiting there to surprise Keith, for Shiro to see the smile on his face. He had made sure to tell Keith to just come straight inside when he got there, and now as they finally heard the sound of Keith parking his bike half-way up the drive, Shiro felt a sudden rush of anxiety. 

He was terrified, just for a moment, that Keith would hate this. He would hate being surprised like this, and then he’d be mad at Shiro forever for shoving his nose too far in this not having fun thing. 

Thank god Shiro’s anxiety brain was obviously horribly wrong, the crowd yelling surprise and balloons falling over his head as Keith walked in the front door didn’t seem to make him angry. For a moment, Keith looked startled, and Shiro nearly panicked. Keith looked more like he was in fight-or-flight mode than excited to see all of his closest friends for a birthday party. 

Keith drew back a bit, laughing openly in a way that Shiro had never seen, but he was pretty sure it was a good thing. By the time Lance turned on the music, and everyone started to move towards Keith to say happy birthday or hug him, Keith looked like he might start crying. Shiro couldn’t tell if it was because he was happy or because he was just laughing too hard. Either way, as the grin grew across his own face and he stepped towards Keith to put a sash on him that said ‘It’s my birthday’, he felt like this was a win. 

He knew it was when Keith drew him in for a sweet kiss once he got close enough. 

“God Shiro, how long have you been planning this?” Keith asked, allowing Shiro to slip the sash over his head with a laugh. His smile got larger, he rubbed his eyes, and everyone, very genuinely looked proud of themselves, patting Keith on the shoulder here or there, telling him happy birthday before getting drinks. 

Shiro put a glass of the bourbon-lemonade concoction into Keith’s hand and shrugged, “Couple weeks.” 

“Jesus.” Keith laughed, looking around and watching the crowd for a second, “The balloons say my name.” 

“Happy birthday, baby.” Shiro grinned and then started down the path of promptly getting Keith comfortably drunk for his twenty first birthday, eating food Shiro had catered and cake that Hunk had hand made. They played a few drinking games, and before Shiro knew it, the party had settled down. A few people still lingered, but a few had left to walk home or weren’t drinking so they could drive other people home, and as they talked with Lance, Allura, Matt, Pidge, and Hunk, Keith slowly nestled into Shiro’s side. 

They’d gotten him pretty drunk, drunk enough that Keith cried over the cake having his name on it, but in the last hour or so, Shiro had been feeding him water and he would give him some aspirin before they went to bed to take the edge off the headache. For now though, Keith was busy melting into him between sips of water while they listened to Hunk talk about the mechanics of a good gas stove. 

“Shiro.” Keith picked his head up, blinking blearily at him as he tried to shift, “bed.” 

Shiro laughed, “Okay birthday boy, c’mon.” 

He carefully scooped Keith up with a bit of help from Lance and Allura because he was quickly going boneless. Shiro wound up carrying Keith like a princess up the stairs, laying Keith down on the bed where Keith promptly started to strip his pants off, so Shiro left him be, heading into the bathroom for aspirin, more water, and to brush his teeth really fast.

As he stood in the tiny en suite in his master bedroom, he could see Keith laying with his eyes shut on the bed, so Shiro could keep an eye on him. Of course, as Keith’s eyes slid open, looking up at Shiro who had a toothbrush in his mouth, Shiro never expected him to say anything quite as crazy as: 

“What does an orgasm feel like?” Keith’s eyes locked on Shiro’s as he dropped the toothbrush into the sink. 

“W-What?” Shiro felt like this had to be drunk rambling, but Keith also looked far more coherent than he had in the last two hours. He knew that this could just be Keith’s drunk way of trying to tell Shiro something important, so as he tried to wrap his head around what it could mean, he tried to get Keith to keep talking, “Keith, what are you saying?” 

Keith’s face started to go red suddenly, as if he was only now realizing what he’d said to Shiro. “I, uhm, I mean I-I know what one is, sorry. I don’t know what I’m thinking.”

Shiro washed his mouth out and put his toothbrush away before he picked up the glass of water and aspirin he had for Keith. "It's okay, you're drunk."

"Yeah, just drunk." Keith shifted as Shiro got close, pulling him down for a long, slow kiss, his lips still tasted like bourbon. Shiro let Keith pull him into the bed once he's set the water and pills down, feeling the way Keith's weight shifted so he could crawl on top of Shiro. He couldn't let this go much further, but in this tired moment, kissing Keith was all he could care about.

"Keith." Shiro had to break it, Keith now seated over one of his thighs and nearly grinding on him. If he let it go any further, Shiro was worried that Keith's first time was accidentally going to be when he was drunk. Well, based on a guess he was making from the orgasm comment, Shiro thought it might be Keith's first time, but he really didn't know for sure. Either way, it was a bad idea. 

Keith hummed, looking half asleep and somehow more drunk than he had been a minute ago, "Want to kiss you." 

"Yes, but-" Shiro shifted slightly, and Keith nearly jumped out of his lap when Shiro's thigh neared his crotch. He wasn't expecting that, and startling Keith seemed to wake him up somewhat, but Shiro was left wondering why Keith yelped like he might be in pain. 

"S-Sorry." Keith crawled next to Shiro, settling down on his chest. "We should sleep." 

"Yeah. You okay?" Shiro looked down at Keith, settling a hand in his hair. "Did I, uh, knee you in the balls just now?" 

Keith made a noise that was incomprehensible to Shiro and he shook his head, "no. 'm fine, let's sleep." 

"Okay." Shiro was a little worried, but he just settled into Keith. It was probably just that he was drunk or maybe too embarrassed to admit he'd jumped out of his skin because Shiro grazed his junk with his leg. Then again, it did leave him to wonder again if Keith had maybe never had sex. 

Shiro watched Keith's peaceful sleeping face for a bit. He never fed him the aspirin, but it would be okay. Keith had plenty of water, and as Shiro ran his fingers through Keith's hair, he had a sudden rush of excitement when he realized he might get to be Keith's first. He didn't really care about the first part, so much as realizing he could probably make it sweet and good for Keith. Shiro could give him what he really deserved. 


	7. Chapter 7

He fell asleep feeling far too lovey dovey to wake up to the sound of Keith puking in the master bathroom. Shiro probably should have known it was going to happen, there was so much sugar involved in the night before between the lemonade and the cake, but hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Keith whined when Shiro carefully swept up his hair, holding it back before he started to puke again. 

"If I ever tell you I'm not drunk after five drinks, please-" Keith cut himself off by leaning back into the toilet and drive-heaving. Honestly, Shiro's stomach didn't feel great, and this wasn't helping at all. 

"Kill you instead?" Shiro asked, dryly. 

Keith laughed, "yeah, exactly." 

"Got it, here." Shiro handed Keith a bottle of tums now that he seemed to be in a break between dry heaving and puking. "Let me get you water."

"I feel like I'm just going to throw it up." Keith shifted and groaned, wrapping his legs around the toilet as he uncapped the bottle. 

"Trust me, you'd rather puke up tums and water then dry heave," Shiro took the water bottle from his bedside table and refilled it for Keith in the bathroom sink. 

"I guess that's fair." Keith hiccuped and put two tums in his mouth, chewing slowly, "I've never puked after drinking."

"Really?" Shiro thought about the one time Keith showed up at his place drunk, and honestly, Keith wasn't actually  _ that _ drunk then now that Shiro thought about it. Definitely not good to drive, but not so drunk he was borderline incoherent like the night before. 

Keith nodded, sipping on the water and frowning, "I need to brush my teeth." 

Shiro smiled, helping Keith to the sink and giving him a toothbrush. The worst of it seemed to be over, and Keith was eating at his kitchen table not even an hour later, Allura and Hunk thankfully accepting water as Shiro made eggs for everyone. In that moment, Shiro really felt like everything was right in his life, even as Matt mumbled something to him about his race car, and Shiro shushed him. 

He knew he had to tell Keith about it still, that was about all he could say on the subject. That didn't mean it wasn't terrifying to him, even as he awkwardly climbed into Keith's bed after his family Thanksgiving just a few weeks after Keith's birthday, Shiro couldn't think of a good way to tell him.

Shiro feared Keith deciding the worry wasn't worth being with Shiro, even if he knew that wasn't likely. Keith fought for him at every turn, even hissing at people for Shiro while they were Christmas shopping together at a mall just outside of Phoenix. 

"Mind your damn business lady, nobody asked your opinion." Had come out of Keith's mouth so naturally it was like he had practiced it. Honestly, if she hadn't made it a point to say, "You're that man that crashed the plane and killed a bunch of people" to Shiro while he was trying to buy socks for Allura, Keith probably would have been less intense. Shiro appreciated it either way. No one had been so firmly on his side as Keith was since his grandfather passed. And in a lot of ways, Keith reminded Shiro of his grandfather.

At some point when the racing season started again, Shiro found himself tucking a string of photobooth photos he and Keith took on New years into his suit next to the photo of his grandfather he always carried each time he raced. It felt natural, just adding Keith to that equation, and before long, Keith became one of his biggest motivators to race more while also being a constant worry. 

He stepped out onto the track with his helmet already on and he looked to Matt on the side, barely visible beyond the haze of heat. Shiro wondered what it would be like to see Keith out there when he raced, and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to tell him about it. 

Shiro just couldn’t bring himself to, nodding solemnly at Black Lion who now had the most intensely painted helmet Shiro had ever seen. The jaws of the lion biting down on the dark visor. Black lion was a bit of a mystery to Shiro, they nodded back every time they acknowledged each other, but he’d never said a word to them. 

Even weirder, Shiro raced under the name Black Lion when he was in juniors, before he’d gone to the Garrison. When he’d gone to try to register with that name again after he’d first gotten his prosthetic, he was told he couldn’t, which is how he wound up the White Lion. People seemed to understand that this Black Lion wasn’t the same person, Shiro had never been a huge name anyway. It did make him think that maybe they were from the same hometown, but he was pretty sure he would have heard if there was another racer living there by now. That or he at least would have heard whose kid it was, everyone’s always talking about what their kids are doing. 

Either way, this Black Lion was always polite, never took off their helmet, not unlike Shiro himself, and didn’t do stupid shitty things like many of the other drivers did. So Shiro always treated them favorably, which at the very least seemed to piss the few people who knew who he was off. 

Now though, as he got to his car, he nodded at Black Lion, and let all of that go from his thoughts. He had things to focus on, he wanted to donate to the schools back home, and he wasn’t about to let anything get into his head at the moment. 

Shiro settled into his car, checking things over quickly and taking his time to take a few, settling breaths. The countdown started shortly after that, all the racers in their car as Shiro stilled his entire being, ready to release the clutch and speed forward. 

His adrenaline settled into his system, his breathing slow and deliberate as he watched the lights, knowing that those would better indicate when to go. As soon as he saw green, he slammed on the gas, slicing through the crowd because his reaction time was half of his skillset when it came to racing. Shiro’s vision tunneled, sliding right past Griffon and into the second place spot with Black Lion of all people ahead of him. Somehow, they always seemed to just be a little bit better at this than him, which excited Shiro. It was so much better winning when they were around. 

The first turn cemented Griffin into third, stuck behind Shiro as he carefully edged back and forth to keep him back there. Black Lion at the moment wasn’t doing anything to prevent him from getting ahead, other than simply speeding up. That was a new trick for them, and Shiro was kind of interested in why they weren’t trying to block him out. He couldn’t really pull any tricks find out what Black Lion was up to with Griffin on his ass though, so for now he stayed the course, getting through the second turn. 

He’d studied the course over and over, he knew a lot could happen on the third turn and the following straight away, so he readied himself for that, keeping Griffon away from his side and his eyes firmly on Black Lion. They had to have some kind of trick to keep him in second here. Whatever it was, Shiro needed to figure it out fast, the first lap was going to define the whole race on a course like this one. 

As they came up on the turn, he saw it, Black Lion pulling out to their right, ever so slightly. Shiro caught up to them quick, their car drifting further from the wall. It had to be some kind of mistake, Black Lion wouldn't be making a rookie mistake like taking a turn too hard, but suddenly as the turn came up, Black Lion was far enough out that Shiro could also slip past on their left-hand side. 

He took it, pressing Black Lion through the curve and managing to pull out ahead. Somehow they'd lost Griffon entirely, which had to be for the better by Shiro's guess. There was a hairpin turn next, and those tended to fuck Griffin up in ways that usually ruined another driver's run. 

So Shiro focused on keeping Black Lion out while he sailed down the straight away, he quickly found he was going to have to take the hairpin pretty tight if Black Lion didn't back off of him. 

And then it hit Shiro, everything he had done wrong as he came upon the hairpin, it was definitely a trap. He had to take it too hard, slowing him down just enough for Black Lion to literally drift around him, doing an almost 90 degree maneuver which allowed them to shoot down the next straight away as if they hadn't even taken a turn. They were going impossibly fast, and as Shiro barely got half way through the straight away, he knew he'd already lost this race. Black Lion was nearly five seconds ahead of him, they had to be. 

"Fuck." He switched gears, focusing his attention on keeping second. Though, that trick of Black Lion's had drawn him forward in a way that put them both ahead. He could easily maintain this, which is exactly what Black Lion wanted. Shiro was the best in the league at boxing people out, and Black Lion had just used him as his personal guard. 

He took an only mildly ashamed second, and for the first time since he'd been racing, he considered actually trying to talk to Black Lion. Honest, Shiro just wanted to know how the hell they figure out they could do that. How much research had they put into how Shiro drives? 

Shiro didn't say anything on the podium, not taking his helmet off to interview, he promptly made himself disappear.

When he got to Matt, he slipped his helmet off, the sweat pooled at his hairline finally falling down his face and neck. It felt good, so much better than doing it on the hot track in front of thousands of people. 

"Hey, remember that time you told me that Black Lion had to be the best driver of their generation?" Matt leaned on the workbench, his arms crossed as he watched Shiro. 

"Barely?" Shiro picked up a towel and started to wipe down his face. 

"I didn't understand until today." Matt stood straighter, picking up his phone, "I've watched the playback four times, I have no idea how they did that." 

Shiro shrugged, "Practice." 

"And some pure insanity." Matt held up his phone, "They fucking  _ drifted _ , their back tires weren't even in their control."

"They must know their car that well." Honestly, it reminded Shiro of Keith. They’d taken to racing hoverbikes out in the desert and he’d seen Keith do something like that on a bike he’d had since he was a kid. It made a lot of sense, now that he thought about it, Black Lion must have had the car for a while, and if they did most of the maintenance themselves, they probably knew the car as well as Keith knew his bike. 

Matt chewed on his lip, considering what Shiro said. “They must, you’re right. Well, either way, you did really good. Second is still a good amount of donation money.” 

Shiro took a deep breath and nodded, “yeah, you’re right. It’s still pretty good. I just....” 

“You wanted to win more money for the donation, I know, I know.” Matt waved at him, but Shiro shook his head. 

“No.” Shiro played with his helmet, “This time I just wanted to win.” 

“Really?” Matt looked back at Shiro now, his eyes scanning his face and then he smiled. “I mean, you and Black Lion go back and forth all the time Shiro. You’ll beat them next time. We can work on it buddy.” 

Shiro frowned, “I’m not twelve Matt, I can handle losing a race. It’s just, weird. I haven’t raced for anything but donation money in years.” 

“But that’s a good thing, right?” Matt crossed his arms, “You raced as a kid because you loved it. Maybe you’re starting to love it again?” 

“Maybe that’s it.” Shiro furrowed his brow, picking up Matt’s phone to watch the replay. “Okay, maybe I’m twelve, how the  _ fuck _ did they do that? Did they cheat?” 

Matt laughed and shook his head, “I don’t think they cheated, no.” 

Shiro sighed and put Matt’s phone down. “I need to learn to drive like that.” 

“Well, if you don’t want them doing that to you again, you better also learn how to defend against it.” Matt chuckled to himself and started to clean up his station. “My guess though, Black Lion has invested some of that sponsorship money back into their car.” 

“Sponsorship money?” Shiro started to help Matt pack up so they can get the car into the trailer for the shipping company. 

“Yeah? Haven’t you seen those ads in *all* the racing magazines? And that helmet they’re wearing? They picked up some sponsorship that’s into their no taking off their helmet bit.” Matt continued to ramble for a while as Shiro thought about the lion painting on the helmet Black Lion had been wearing. Honestly, Shiro might have lost, but he was sort of proud of Black Lion? They shared a namesake, he could be proud of Black Lion, that’s not that weird. 

He might have had a bit of a driver’s crush on them. 

Shiro put it all out of his mind once he and Matt had packed up. They got on the road to head home shortly after that, Shiro sitting in the passenger's seat as Matt drove, his phone in hand. Keith seemed to be in high spirits because of something at work, so they texted for a while and quickly Keith convinced him to take a ride out into the desert as soon as he got back into town. 


	8. Chapter 8

It was about mid-day when he got home, Matt and Shiro had stopped at a motel for the night, and he had told Keith he could just wander into his house. Shiro quickly decided it was a great idea. Because by the time he walked into his house and found Keith excitedly waiting there with Kosmo, Shiro could hardly be upset about the loss anymore. 

Keith pulled him into sweet kiss, a big smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck, “I brought a picnic with me. Are you up for going out to the canyon?” 

“I’m always up for that.” Shiro smiled, pressing another kiss on Keith’s lips and watching the way his eyes lit up when Shiro wrapped his arms around his waist. “Is Kosmo hanging here?” 

“I figured we could let him relax here for a while.” Keith grinned, “And actually, my parents are in Phoenix, so he would have been alone all day if I didn’t bring him.” 

“Let’s give him a few toys this time?” Shiro looked back at Keith, “you know, so he doesn’t tear apart another throw pillow.” 

Keith gave him a sheepish look, “I brought like, ten, and a kong, so we can put peanut butter into it and distract him for like, a while.” 

“How long is a while?” Shiro raised an eyebrow at Keith. He wasn’t actually mad about the pillow, but he was worried if Kosmo ate stuffing, it would get caught in his stomach and hurt him. 

“He’s a little too smart for them, he gets most of the peanut butter out in about thirty minutes.” Keith looked at Kosmo, who was definitely too smart for his own good sometimes. “But, if we hide it from him, that can buy us an extra fifteen minutes or so.” 

Shiro laughed, “All right, all right. We should just try to come back before it gets too late to make sure he doesn’t eat anything.” 

“Yes.” Keith nodded, “That’s fine. I just want to go out to the canyon and watch the sunset.” 

“That sounds nice.” Shiro hummed, leaning his weight onto Keith while Keith tried to hold him up as best he could. It didn’t really work, they were both quickly sinking. Not because Keith couldn’t hold him, but more because Shiro had him at an awkward angle. 

“Shiro, Shiro please.” Keith shuffled his feet, trying to make his stances wider to help hold Shiro up. “Why are you doing this?” 

Shiro chuckled, righting himself so he was no longer leaning on Keith. “Because it’s fun. Do you want to take both our bikes?” 

“I was hoping so.” Keith grinned, “I bet I can beat you this time.” 

“Oh, so you want to race, that’s what this is?” Shiro wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist, pulling him in for another little kiss. Keith tried to look innocent, but he couldn’t really contain it. He really couldn’t contain anything when he got worked up. Shiro liked it a lot.

“Maybe. Is that a problem?” 

Shiro shook his head, “no. Actually, could you show me how you do that thing where you swing your bike out behind you?” 

Keith blinked for a moment, “what like on sharp turns?”

“Yeah that.” Shiro went to his duffel bag, going to pull his wallet out of it, slipping it into his jacket pocket. Keith looked at him curiously. 

“Why?” Keith narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“So I can make sure you don’t beat me.” Shiro grinned when Keith scoffed at him, rolling his eyes and walking over to Kosmo. 

“Fine, so long as we race.” Keith looked over his shoulder as he scratched Kosmo’s ears, “Let me put peanut butter into the kong for him.”

Shiro started to pick up throw pillows, putting them up on the mantle of the fireplace so Kosmo couldn’t reach them. Keith hid the kong in a spot he was pretty sure would get them a bit of extra time, and left several other chew toys around in weird spots that Shiro was definitely going to step on later, but that didn’t matter. Hopefully it was enough that Kosmo wouldn’t eat something that he shouldn’t, even if Shiro’s neighbors might make a noise complaint about the squeaky toys.

He went to get his hoverbike from the garage, meeting Keith in front of the house and then following him out to the desert road they used as their starting point. They had a set course they liked to run, sometimes running it backwards for variety. Shiro had gotten used to it, and while they always ran it with the hoverbikes, and it was the same every time, it helped him focus on little things. 

It wasn’t really racing practice, but dealing with Keith was challenging enough that it almost made up for the fact that it wasn’t on a track or using his car. Plus, as they settled side-by-side on their bikes in the light of the early Spring sun, Shiro watched Keith pull a helmet down onto his head and somehow Shiro couldn’t take his eyes off him. Keith came alive whenever they did this, in a way Shiro didn’t see unless they were on the hoverbikes. 

Keith always had a spark to him, it was part of what had dragged Shiro to his knees and left him with whiplash-like crush he’d gotten on Keith, but when they raced, it was something different from that. When they got on the bikes, pulled down their helmets, and set their onboard computers to count down simultaneously, Keith’s entire being changed. 

He became laser focused, his hands gripping the handle bars gently as he settled into himself in a way that made Shiro want to watch rather than focusing on his start. And when the countdown hit zero, they sailed up into the red rocks of the canyon, the two of them focused on trying to win the friendly race they’d been running over and over again since they’d started dating.

Shiro watched Keith take turns, keeping his eyes focused on how he handled the bike, knowing it meant Keith might win the race. He still had a trick up his sleeve he’d never used while racing Keith, so he wasn’t too worried about it. For now, he let Keith have the lead. As they came around the tight bends, Keith demonstrated exactly what he did with his bike to right it before taking the straight away. It seemed easier on a hoverbike, the movement was smooth. Even when Black Lion had done it on the track, the wheels has skidded slightly. 

But then they were nearing the end of the track, their final few miles a cascading hill which swiveled into the valley below. This is where Shiro knew he had Keith. He let him stay ahead, his eyes on the horizon as they sped towards the cliff. 

Keith took a left, as he should, while Shiro sped up, shooting clear off the cliff. He saw Keith slow to a stop out of the corner of his eye, his bike sailing over the rockface as he readied himself for the landing. It was always a little bit rough, no matter what he did. 

When he came down on the ground, he sped along to their finish line, ahead of Keith and already smug about it. Keith skidded to a stop just a few feet from him, his bike making a strange sputtering noise as he did it. His helmet came off first, and as he stepped off the bike with such intent, Shiro worried that he might be mad. Keith’s shoulders were squared, his jaw locked, and his hair was just a bit sweaty, but it hung in his face so nicely. 

Shiro readied to get decked, not that he really though Keith would hit him, but for some reason that was how his body read all of Keith’s body language. Instead, to Shiro’s surprise, Keith yanked him down into a tight kiss. 

It wasn’t like they hadn’t kissed before, and although they’d really only gone about as far as making out, they had moments that were heated. This wasn’t anything like that.

The kiss was heavy, Keith’s mouth opening up to Shiro and his tongue running over his lips and teeth in a way that urged Shiro to follow. He found himself chasing Keith’s tongue the desperation quickly settling into the pit of his stomach while he tried to step one foot off the bike to get closer. Closer to Keith.

When he stepped into Keith’s space, Keith led Shiro right into the most passionate kiss he’d ever had in his life. Shiro knew he’d never had feelings for another person the way he had feelings for Keith. He just didn’t understand how deep that went until Keith moaned into his mouth and sunk his teeth into Shiro’s bottom lip. 

“Fuck.” Keith, panting and still holding Shiro close, seemed to realize that they shouldn’t be standing in the desert, just making out. “You have to show me how to do that.” 

Shiro opened his eyes to find Keith’s intense gaze still there, his eyes dark, and his demeanor somehow the same as when they raced. It was like all his focus had just transferred from the bike to Shiro, and Shiro had to admit that he really liked it. 

“I can show you.” Shiro pulled Keith into another small kiss, not as harried, but still very good. “We should head up for the sunset. Onto the rocks.” 

Keith took a breath, watching Shiro for a moment, “yeah.” 

He sounded breathless in a way Shiro hadn’t heard, and as Shiro watched him pull back and head for his bike, he found himself staring at Keith’s long legs. His soft hair, and his shoulders, the way his slender waist gave way to his muscular torso. Keith was so beautiful, his whole body light up in the slowly falling sun for just a moment. Just for Shiro. 

They got back onto their bikes, heading up to the rocks so they could settle the blanket Keith brought on one of the few grassy patches there were. It was soft enough while they ate, both of them facing out towards the canyon, their bikes parked behind them. 

Shiro stole glances at Keith, his eyes scanning over this jawline and brow. His hair fluttered slightly in the wind, still bathed in orange from the setting sun. Shiro was in love. In a way that made him wonder if he’d ever really been in love before, or if he’d just settled. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Keith had just finished his sandwich, a small smile on his face as he turned to Shiro. 

Shiro reached out to Keith, carefully wrapping an arm around his shoulders so he could pull him in close. Keith naturally settled into his side, his hands landing on Shiro’s knee as Shiro threaded his fingers into Keith’s hair. They sat there, just like that until the sun was nearly set, a sliver of orange still peaking over the horizon. Keith picked his head up then, looking at Shiro for a moment before he drew Shiro into another kiss. 

At first, Shiro expected it to be sweet. They had wound down, spent some time just relaxing against each other, but instead Keith was quickly picking up right where they’d been before. Shiro certainly wasn’t complaining, but he was sort of surprised. 

Keith had been, sort of shy about his body, about sex. Shiro had just figured it was that he had little to no experience, especially considering the comment Keith had made about orgasms on his birthday. But this was oddly confident. Keith seemed to know exactly what he wanted, he seemed to be going after it with a lot of intent, so Shiro followed his lead. 

He let Keith crawl into his lap, felt him shiver as Shiro ran his fingers over his waist, being careful not to accidentally brush him with the metal hand just yet. Keith’s hands slid over Shiro’s shoulders, resting gently against his back as he kept himself on his knees. Shiro didn’t try to pull him down, instead he focused on the kiss, on Keith. Even if it was starting to get really hard for him to ignore himself, he cared more about anything they did being good for Keith than what he wanted. 

Shiro did try to edge forward though, after about five minutes of desperate making out, he slipped his hand up, trying to see if Keith would maybe let him get his shirt off. Mostly, Shiro just wanted to kiss his neck more, and the collar was sort of getting in the way. 

Keith shivered and froze, only momentarily, but then he pulled away from the kiss entirely. Shiro couldn’t help himself, trying to chase Keith’s lips as he went and then stopping when he realized Keith was trying to pull away. 

“I.” Keith looked, startled almost, carefully pulling his shirt back down, “Maybe, we should talk.” 

“Yeah.” Shiro was still breathless, but now he was also worried. Keith’s brightness was gone at the moment, and suddenly Shiro feared he had pushed too far or acted too eagerly. “Are you okay?” 

Keith started to say something and stopped entirely, setting his hand down on Shiro’s shoulder and then carefully moving out of his lap. “I’m, you didn’t do anything wrong.” 

Shiro stayed quiet, just watching Keith for a moment. 

“I just.” Keith twitched anxiously now, more than Shiro had ever seen him. “There’s something I need to tell you about. I was afraid that if I did, you wouldn’t want me anymore, but, I don’t think I can keep putting this off.” 

Shiro’s brow furrowed, “Keith, there’s not a lot that would make me not want you.” 

“You say that.” Keith sort of laughed, rubbing one arm and looking down at his hand. “But I really think this might change your mind.” 

Shiro’s head was now going through everything he and Keith had ever down together. Had he said something early on that might make Keith think Shiro wouldn’t like something about him? He couldn’t really place anything, but maybe this was something about Keith’s age. That was about all he had in his head, and as he met Keith’s eyes, Shiro knew that maybe he had no idea what this was at all.

“I’m trans.” Keith started to shake, so Shiro quickly reached out to him, setting a hand on Keith’s arm to steady him. “And I mean, I knew I should have told you sooner. I just, I knew you only liked men, and I was worried that it would ruin everything, but this isn’t fair to you, I’m sorry.” 

“Whoa, whoa, Keith.” Shiro could see that he’d built this all up in his head, the way his shoulders pulled in, how he held himself awkwardly on his knees. Keith looked like he was being held together with an egg, some strings, and a couple paperclips at the moment. “Hey, first of all, you are a man, that’s not really an issue here.” 

Keith glanced up at Shiro, tears running down his face. So Shiro moved to cup his face in his hands, pulling him close again. 

“I understand why you were scared, but I’m not.” Shiro shook his head, “I’m not going to stop being in love with you because of your gender, or your body.” 

Keith stopped. He froze in place, his eyes getting soft and wide and his mouth falling slightly agape.

“You’re in love with me?” Keith’s voice sounded small, like he was scared to ask the question. 

“I have been,” Shiro said, “for a while.” 

“Oh.” Keith had a look on his face like gears were turning in his head still, so Shiro just gave him a moment. Then suddenly everything seemed to click, Keith’s eyes getting wider as he grabbed onto Shiro like he had forgotten something. “I Love you too, shit, I should have said that, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pause.”

Shiro relaxed, feeling a laugh come out of him as he leaned forward to press a kiss onto Keith’s forehead, “it’s okay. I dropped it on you kind of suddenly.” 

“It’s okay.” Keith settled down, his expression getting bashful, “so, you’re really okay, with the trans thing?” 

“Yes.” Shiro nodded again, a memory popping into his head as he did. Katie, and her best friend who had dark hair and intense eyes. Shiro couldn’t stop it, the sudden flood of every single time he’d seen Keith when they were kids, listening to Pidge talk about how Keith had run away into the city. Shiro had known him the whole time, he just didn’t put it together until now. 

“Are you okay?” Keith tilted his head at Shiro, looking nervous again. 

“Yes.” Shiro shook his head, and frowned, “sorry, I just, you’re Katie’s best friend? I just, it just occurred to me, I saw you at the Holt’s all the time, didn’t I? Before you could be yourself.” 

Keith thought about that for a moment and then sort of laughed, “Before I could be myself. I guess you could say it that way.” 

“Then, that’s why you ran away? So you could transition?” Shiro looked back up at Keith, watching the small nod and quiet smile he got on his face.   
“Our town is small,” Keith said, “I convinced myself there was no way my parents would ever accept me for who I am. Even if they would, I’d cause them a lot of trouble coming out. But when my dad got hurt, I came back without thinking about it.” 

Shiro watched Keith for another moment, his eyes trained on the way his legs moved as Keith shifted himself to sit in a different position. It was quiet, for a little bit, and then Keith looked at Shiro and smiled. 

“I can tell you more about all that later.” Keith wrapped his arms around his knees, “I, what I thought I should really tell you. I’ve had top surgery, but after growing a little once I started transitioning, I felt pretty good about where I was at. So I haven’t done anything else.” 

“That’s okay.” Shiro moved to sit with his legs crossed and looked at Keith, “I was serious when I said that I won’t stop being in love with you because of your body.”

Keith’s face got just a touch of color, and despite the lack of sunlight, Shiro could still see Keith’s face well enough to notice how sheepish Keith looked now. “Yeah, but are you going to be able to have sex with me?” 

Shiro blinked at Keith for a second. It was his turn to pause awkwardly while he desperately tried to process what just came out of Keith’s mouth. Once he had, he nodded quickly. 

“Yes,” Shiro said, “I promise. Just, make sure to talk to me, so I don’t do anything that makes you uncomfortable.” 

Keith stared at him for a moment, and then as Shiro watched, tears started to run down Keith’s cheeks again. Shiro moved to cup his face again, this time pressing soft kisses on his skin, “Why are you crying?” 

“I.” Keith swallowed, “I really thought you were going to leave me on the spot. I never thought you were going to be this kind about it. No one ever has.” 

“Oh, Keith.” Shiro moved to pull Keith back into his lap, just holding him against his chest and letting him cry for a while. It was only for a little bit though, because after about a minute, Keith sat himself up straight, wiped his face and frowned. 

“I never cried when any dude told me he didn’t want me because I was trans, why am I crying so much  _ now _ .” Keith made a frustrated noise, rubbing his eyes as he bent back into Shiro’s chest. Shiro couldn’t help but laugh, catching Keith’s face so he could press another kiss on him. This time though, he let it linger, the heat from before wasn’t there, but it was slow and warm. 

“How about we go home before Kosmo eats my couch and gets sick?” Shiro smiled as he watched Keith try to follow his lips. 

“Yeah you’re right.” Keith sighed quietly, leaning on Shiro for just a moment before he got up. 

They gathered up the trash from their dinner and folded the blanket, putting it all in the back of Keith's bike. When they started back down their race track, Keith kept at his side, the small amount of light they had made it too hard to go fast anyway. So they went slow, and they talked a little on their way down before they hit the long, straight road that led them to town. 


	9. Chapter 9

Kosmo was happy to see them, and hadn't chewed apart anything in the house. They'd clearly occupied him well enough, so they had a quiet discussion about doing that more while they cleaned out the trash from Keith's bike and ordered a pizza because the sandwiches weren't really enough for a dinner. After they ate, Keith settled himself against Shiro's arm on the couch, so Shiro drew him into his side, an arm around his shoulders while Kosmo laid on the floor, quietly chewing on a non-squeaky chew toy which Keith had brought him. 

"Hey." Keith carefully turned Shiro's head, one hand on his jaw while the other found Shiro's fingers. "C'mere." 

Shiro let Keith pull him into a kiss, his hand going to cup Keith's cheek, but he quickly found himself following Keith as he pulled away. Keith carefully stood from where he was, telling Kosmo to stay as he pulled Shiro along. 

Keith led Shiro upstairs, fingers curled around Shiro's metal hand, the warmth registering on his arm in a way that made Shiro's hair stand on end. Shiro felt himself staring at Keith again, his hair, his neck, the way his shoulders led him wherever he went, and the intense look in his violet eyes. It was the same one he'd had as he'd gotten off his bike earlier, and Shiro found himself entranced. He would let Keith lead him anywhere honestly, and getting to see Keith like this made it so much better. 

He followed Keith into a kiss, and then into the bed, where he desperately tried to slow down but it was so hard. Shiro hadn't realized how desperate they had grown for each other. As Keith tugged Shiro's shirt off and bit into his skin, Shiro couldn't contain his excitement. 

Luckily, Keith seemed to be having the same problem as Shiro, laying kisses over Shiro's neck and pulling him as close as he could. Shiro got his wits about him though, a hand finding Keith's hair to gently tug it, hoping to get Keith's attention. Instead, Keith whimpered in a way that went straight to Shiro's groin. 

"Oh my god." Shiro stared at Keith for a moment, the way his eyes sparkled slightly in the low light, but he shook it off. He had to focus on what he was trying to do, "is there anything off limits for you?" 

Keith's brow furrowed, Shiro wasn't sure if it was out of confusion or frustration, and then he shook his head, "no. I've never really had that kind of dysphoria." 

"Anything I shouldn't say then?" Shiro needed to know this before he did anything else, he wanted Keith to have a good time and he didn't want a slip up to ruin it. 

"Shiro, stop worrying so much. I have a vagina, a cunt, a pussy, front hole, whatever you want to call it, I don’t really care." Keith shifted and pressed Shiro onto his back, rolling so Keith could crawl on top of Shiro. He settled himself on Shiro’s hips, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him a little bit. “Everything is fine, just relax.” 

Shiro shivered, and then he quickly found himself laughing, letting Keith shake him, “okay, you’re right, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Keith snickered as he stopped shaking him, leaning down to press another kiss on Shiro. “I know it’s just because you care.” 

“I want to be good for you.” Shiro felt a little silly about it now. Saying it out loud made him realize just how much of it came from his anxiety, and now, with Keith sitting on his hips, he could feel that worry start to melt away. 

“I know.” Keith’s eyes got darker, his hands sliding up Shiro’s shoulders, “But for now just relax, okay? You’ve already been much better to me than a lot of people.” 

Shiro blushed, Keith looking at him with that same intent he’d had earlier, intense and beautiful in a way that Shiro couldn’t quite comprehend. The most he could do was nod, worried that if he tried to make a noise, he’d embarrass himself. He wasn’t sure how he’d ever gotten so lucky that Keith was even interested in him in the first place, let alone enough that Keith was now kissing his collar bone. Keith helped him get his shirt off, his lips only pulling from Shiro’s skin long enough to remove the fabric, and then he was sucking marks into Shiro’s chest. 

“Keith.” Shiro breathed, his hand finding Keith’s hair as he ran his tongue over Shiro’s nipple. It was enough to make him arch into Keith’s touch, which seemed to satisfy him in some way, his teeth sinking into the skin at his ribs for a moment. “Fuck.” 

Keith didn’t stop, he just smiled against Shiro’s skin as he kissed the spot he’d bitten. His hands were now on Shiro’s belt, carefully pulling it open while planting soft kisses on Shiro’s navel. Shiro only realized what Keith was doing when Keith looked up at him, his hands on Shiro’s jeans and giving them a little tug. He picked up his hips, letting Keith take his pants off and stopped him for a moment, grabbing the hem of Keith’s shirt so he didn’t feel quite as naked while Keith was fully clothed. 

Shiro tossed Keith’s shirt aside, running a hand down his side and looking over the well-healed surgery scars and taking a second to plant a soft kiss on one. It made Keith chuckle softly, leaning down to press another kiss on Shiro’s lips before he pressed him back into the bed. Making sure that Shiro was comfortably laying on the pillows as he settled between Shiro’s legs again. 

This time, Keith planted a soft kiss on the head of Shiro’s cock, sending a shiver down Shiro’s spine as he watched Keith. Keith’s eyes moved up to Shiro’s face, his soft hair falling over his shoulders in a way that framed his face far too nicely. Shiro couldn’t help the tiny noise that came out of him, quickly getting fully hard as Keith ran his tongue over the imprint of his dick in his boxers. 

His head was almost spinning by the time pulled the boxers off, the intense look still in his eyes as he smirked at Shiro. It was just for a moment, and then Keith leaned down to kiss the now swollen head of Shiro’s dick, and Shiro was certain he was never going to forget this experience. 

Keith started slow, his lips wrapped around the head of Shiro’s cock first, his eyes still on Shiro as he started to sink. Shiro had to let his head drop back, his hand finding Keith’s hair for now as he moaned. He couldn’t keep watching, not with the warmth of Keith’s soft, wet mouth around his cock, slowly sinking down. When Keith had about half Shiro’s shaft in his mouth, Shiro was certain that Keith was going to have to stop. To Shiro’s surprise, or maybe his dismay he isn’t sure, Keith sank all the way down to near his base in one swift movement. 

Shiro picked his head up to look, watching Keith start to come back up and bob back down smoothly, Shiro’s dick disappearing into Keith’s mouth like it was nothing. He could feel the head sliding into Keith’s throat and Shiro already felt like he was going to lose his mind. 

“Holy shit.” Shiro groaned as Keith swallowed around him again, starting to pick up pace, somehow managing to take more of Shiro with each movement. He melted under Keith’s touch, his grip tightening on Keith’s hair and earning him a soft moan which rattled Shiro’s spine. He wasn’t going to last if he let Keith keep going at the pace he was, and honestly, Shiro was starting to realize that maybe Keith wasn’t as inexperienced as he’d thought. “ _ Keith _ .” 

Keith pulled off Shiro with a pop, his lips shiney and his eyes sparkling. He panted softly, his mouth hanging open and a string of spit still connecting him to the head of his cock. Shiro couldn’t stop the gruff whine that came out of his throat and Keith just smiled at him, looking mischievous. 

“Why’d you stop me?” He asked, shifting to run his tongue over the head of Shiro’s cock again. Shiro bit back another whine, clearing his throat and grabbed Keith by the shoulders to pull him up into a kiss. Keith seemed fine with that, snickering against Shiro’s lips as he met him half-way. 

“You’re too good at that.” Shiro practically moaned into Keith’s mouth, his hands now on Keith’s jeans. Keith just chuckled, wrapping a hand around Shiro’s slick cock and stroking him. 

“I’m not going to apologize for that.” Keith looked beyond cocky as Shiro glowered at him for a moment and then he laughed, planting another kiss on Shiro’s lips. Shiro refocused on tugging down Keith’s pants, and when Keith pulled away, Shiro took advantage of the moment to grab Keith’s waist and roll them over, Keith yelping softly in surprise. 

“Sorry.” Shiro smiled at him, glacing Keith over spread out on the bed before him. Keith, for the first time since they had gotten into Shiro’s bed, looked flustered, his cheeks and chest flushed. 

“It’s okay.” Keith sounded sufficiently breathless. Shiro made quick note of it, overpowering Keith, even gently, seemed to make him submissive, which he sort of knew. Keith would get like this sometimes when they made out too, and Shiro was totally going to take advantage of it while he could. 

For now, he focused on getting Keith’s pants off, which made him look just a touch nervous, his eyes on Shiro’s face. Shiro leaned down to kiss Keith’s chest, “we don’t have to do anything you know.” 

“I know.” Keith nodded, “I want to. I just, you know.” 

Shiro nodded and starts to plant kisses down Keith’s stomach, much like he had to Shiro earlier, “I promise, nothing is going to scare me off.” 

Keith nodded again, “I know, I trust you.” 

Shiro smiled at him, nipping at Keith’s hip bone and earning him a soft noise. Keith’s hands found their way into Shiro’s hair, tugging softly at the very front, so Shiro moaned softly back at him. He wanted Keith to be comfortable, he wouldn’t hide any of the stupid noises he tended to try to hide. 

He took Keith’s pants the rest of the way off, leaving him in his boxers for a moment so Shiro could carefully run his tongue over Keith’s cock, feeling it twitch at the movement. Keith responded with a gentle tug to his hair and a whimper. Shiro takes that as encouragement, planting a kiss on that spot as he curled his fingers under the waistband of Keith’s boxers. Keith lifted his hips easily, one hand over his mouth as Shiro pulled off boxers, sliding them off Keith’s slender legs and discarding them. 

For a moment, Shiro couldn’t resist looking Keith over, trying not to be too obvious about it, but Keith looked so good like that. Laid out on Shiro's bed, his hair around his face in soft waves and spikes of black, his eyes locked on Shiro's face. Shiro leaned down pressing a kiss on his navel, feeling the way it made Keith's breathing hitch. Shiro just hoped it was in excitement. 

He let his tongue do the talking though, hoping to keep Keith focused on the pleasure as he wrapped his lips around Keith's cock, sucking on it gently to start. It earned him a moan and a hand in Shiro's hair, Keith's fingers curling around the silvered locks and his legs pulled up at either side of Shiro's head. 

Shiro took that as a good sign, flickering his tongue over Keith's swollen cock as his fingers carefully found his entrance, running them over the wet lips to test the waters. When Keith huffed a small cry of Shiro's name, he carefully slipped his fingers inside of Keith's, letting the warmth take them for now. Keith seemed to appreciate it as Shiro's tongue lathed over the length of his cock, quickly panting at the movement of Shiro's fingers. 

Honestly, Shiro barely knew what he was doing, he was going to look into this better later, but at least Keith seemed to be enjoying it. Soon though, as Shiro sucked on the soft skin next to Keith's dick, Keith grabbed his shoulders, trying to draw him up. Shiro followed, keeping his fingers inside of Keith as he went and rolling them over the spot that made Keith twitch and writhe like he might crawl out of the bed. He watched Keith's face, his eyes begging as he tried to form words, and Keith eventually wrapped a hand around his wrist, not trying to pull it away. 

"Shiro." The intensity in Keith's eyes came back, the look that he'd had earlier and Shiro couldn't help but lean down to kiss him. Keith moaned into his mouth, the kiss grew sloppy and filthy, and Shiro could hear how wet Keith had gotten, slick all over his fingers and palm. "Please, Shiro, fuck me." 

"Are you sure?" Shiro leaned down to kiss Keith's neck, sucking on the skin lightly as he continued to tease that spot. Keith arched and moaned. 

"Yes, I swear." Keith bit back a moan and turned into Shiro, "don't make me beg." 

Shiro smiled a little bit, he'd very much like to make Keith beg, but when he looked up at Keith's face he could already tell that he was maybe just going to slam Shiro on his back if he tried that. "Maybe next time." 

Keith made a noise of distress that sounded feigned, especially because it rolled right into a moan as Shiro pulled his fingers out if him and ran them over Keith's cock, just playing with it for a moment. Shiro grabbed the lube next, because as wet as Keith was, Shiro was kind of big and he didn't want to hurt him. Keith didn't seem to care about anything but planting soft kisses on Shiro at the moment anyway, so he wrapped his hand around his cock, stroking himself a few times while Keith nipped at his tongue. 

“God, you’re lips are so soft.” Keith sounded blissed out and hoarse already. Shiro couldn’t wait to make his voice so much worse.

He ran his lube soaked fingers over Keith’s cock as Shiro lined up with Keith’s entrance, pressing slow kisses on Keith’s lips. His hand hooked under one of Keith’s knees, earning him a soft moan and a roll of his hips. Shiro took advantage of the moan to fuck his tongue into Keith’s mouth, feeling Keith squirm desperately underneath him. As much as Shiro wanted to chase his own pleasure, he was having far too much fun making Keith feel good. 

“ _ Shiro _ .” Keith somehow managed to speak around Shiro’s tongue, but it was slurred and Keith’s voice had an urgent edge to it that it didn’t have earlier. Shiro pulled away just a bit, pressing a wet kiss onto Keith’s chin. 

“What do you want, baby?” Shiro shivered as Keith punctuated a moan but grinding his hips up against Shiro’s cock. He snaked a hand under Keith’s leg again, forcing him to stay still for the moment. “Tell me what you want.” 

Keith whimpered, and for a moment, Shiro thought his brain might break. He needed to hear Keith make that noise again. 

“Shiro, please just fuck me.” It sounded like Keith wanted to sound demanding, instead he just sounded frenzied. His hands found Shiro’s biceps, his nails sinking into his skin in a way that felt honestly delightful. 

Shiro wasn’t about to say no to that, reaching down to line his cock up with Keith’s entrance again, keeping hold on Keith’s leg to keep him from trying to press down on Shiro. As much as he liked the idea of Keith being eager, he didn’t want to go too fast and hurt him. So he let Keith squirm in his grip a moment, carefully pressing the head of his cock into Keith. His eyes scanned over Keith’s stomach and chest, following the line of Keith’s body to his slightly kiss-bruised lips and lidded eyes. 

“God you look good like this.” Shiro smiled as Keith pressed a hand over his face, managing to sink his cock into Keith to the base, just sitting still for the moment. 

“Don’t say things like that so suddenly!” Keith was flushed down to his chest, his back arching against the feeling of Shiro inside him and making them both moan softly. Shiro bent down, grinding into Keith just a little as he pulled Keith’s hand from his face so he could press another kiss on him. 

“It’s true though.” Shiro felt Keith squirm, drawing a moan from deep in Shiro’s chest. He turned Keith’s head back towards him, trying to get him to make eye contact even if Keith was still being shy about it. “I love you, Keith.” 

Keith’s whole demeanor softened for a moment, his cheeks still flushed up to his ears and his eyes still bashful as he wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck, “I love you too.” 

Shiro started to move then, his face pressed against Keith’s neck so he could plant as many kisses and leave as many marks as he could. Keith moaned at each of Shiro’s gentle thrusts, his body getting more pliant and languid for Shiro, eventually, Keith’s arms fell above his head and he let his voice get louder. 

“Fuck you’re big.” Keith moaned against Shiro’s ear, shifting to cling to him again and Shiro felt himself get bashful for the first time. 

“Sorry.” He knows it can be a lot for people. Shiro always feels just a little bit bad, but Keith shifted his legs and rolled them over so he was on top. 

“That wasn’t a complaint.” Keith smirked at Shiro and pushed his hands down on Shiro’s chest so he could sit back, resting easily on Shiro’s hips. The shyness gathered in Shiro’s chest a bit, he was good at this when he was in control, but when someone else, especially someone he cared as much about as he did Keith, took control, he tended to get submissive and flustered fast. 

Keith didn’t even seem to care, shifting his hips and adjusting himself so he could ride Shiro, taking advantage of the lube and how wet he’d already been to grind Shiro’s cock inside him in a way Shiro couldn’t while on top of him. His teeth sunk into his lip, and for a moment, Shiro could see Keith’s eyelashes flutter and his whole body shuddered around his cock. 

“Holy shit.” Shiro was suddenly breathless, his hands sliding up Keith’s thighs as Keith set himself on a pace that was sending shockwaves up Shiro’s spine. He knew he wouldn’t last if he wasn’t careful, so he decided just bringing Keith with him was a better idea. 

“Whoa.” Keith’s voice cracked, his eyes getting wide as Shiro’s thumb and ran over his cock, carefully picking up some lube and wrapping his fingers around it so he could stroke it with each roll of Keith’s hips. He pressed his hand over his mouth, and at first Shiro was going to pull it away until he realized that Keith was biting into his thumb, shivering as he tried to keep his pace. Shiro reached up and managed to replace Keith’s hand with his metal one, the synthetic skin on it wouldn’t break no matter how hard Keith bit, and this way Shiro could gently pull his mouth open, earning loud moans from Keith that Shiro wished he could get a record for his own personal uses honestly. 

Now, with Keith sweet and open, his eyes lidded and his hips jerking along in what was barely a semblance of a rhythm, Shiro started to buck his hips up in time with Keith’s movements. Keith practically keened, his body folding forward somewhat as he pressed a hand onto Shiro’s chest for stability. “I, Sh. Shiro. You’re going to make me–”

“Good.” Shiro leaned up a bit, his fingers more frantically stroking Keith’s hardened cock, brushing over the sensitive head while he did his best to bury his cock into the warmth of Keith’s now fluttering cunt. “Cum on my cock babe, I want to watch you.” 

That seemed to be enough to send Keith over the edge, his legs shaking as he tried to keep rolling his hips, and Shiro suddenly felt like his cock was inside a pulsing, wet vice grip. More important to Shiro though, Keith’s face looked beyond blissed-out, his eyes rolling back, his tongue on Shiro’s metal thumb as he finally stopped biting down on it, and his shoulders shaking. Keith somehow managed to keep his hips moving long enough for Shiro to follow him over the edge before he sank down onto Shiro’s chest, laying himself out and wrapping his arms around his neck. 

“Holy shit.” Keith breathed against Shiro’s neck, Keith was still shivering, his nose pressing closer into Shiro’s skin. Shiro carefully pulled out, running a hand over Keith’s lower back and turning to kiss Keith’s sweaty temple. “I’ve wanted to do that for months.” 

Shiro laughed, his head falling onto the pillow with a thump and Keith crawled over Shiro, pressing a kiss on him with a laugh. He then quickly escaped to Shiro’s bathroom, closing the door behind him, so Shiro set about trying to sort out their clothes so he could lay Keith’s out for him. Once he had his own boxers on, he settled himself back down on the bed, smiling to himself until Keith came back. 

He felt giddy, kissing Keith when he came back and pulling him in close. Keith took his boxers, sliding them on before letting Shiro pull him the rest of the way in. Keith settled against his chest, his soft hair against Shiro’s chin as the two of them quieted for the night. 


	10. Chapter 10

They woke to the sound of Kosmo pawing at the door to be let in, maybe an hour or so after they’d fallen asleep and then in the morning, Shiro woke to the sound of Keith in the kitchen. Kosmo had curled up against his stomach, taking Keith’s place now that he was out of the bed. 

Shiro scratched his ears for a while, rather than getting up right away. When he did decide to crawl himself out of bed, Kosmo responded with a gruff sigh, but he didn’t move. Keith must have fed him already, otherwise, he probably would have followed instead of opting to stay in bed. 

Keith met him with a home-cooked breakfast and a kiss, the two of them settling into a rhythm as Shiro made himself a cup of coffee. Kosmo joined them in the kitchen, not long after Shiro came down, and they ate together. Shiro could see all the times during breakfast he could talk to Keith about racing, but instead he let the morning be soft and happy, opting not to stress them both out. 

They spent more time together after that night, it seemed like Keith slept at his house more than at home. His mother helping his dad through the surgery and new prosthetic, Keith found more time to be with Shiro, which his parents seemed to like. Shiro started eating dinner with them every Sunday night, and he appreciated that they never cared if he showed up still covered in grease from work. 

Krolia usually just smiled and handed him a towel whenever he did it, and Shiro had to admit, after spending a few years alone without his grandfather, it felt nice to have Keith’s parents looking after him in ways. To the point that sometimes they’d make them stay at their house if they drank too much, which was probably for the better anyway. 

The racing season picked back up, and it seemed like work picked up for Keith too, so they managed to be mostly on the same schedule. Shiro focused on winning as many races as he could, every time he saw the construction they were doing on the elementary school, he knew he could make things better for them. He’s gotten better too, with Keith teaching him a few new tricks on the hoverbike that he could adapt when he was behind the wheel of his car. 

It helped that him and Black Lion seemed to have wound up in two different circuits, Shiro didn’t see them for a long time. So Shiro started to take home win after win, his prize money getting thrown willy-nilly at charities in town, and then quickly he found he needed to find charities outside of town, because he was starting to run out of places to give to. Plus, a few of them had told him they’d already recently received large donations from an anonymous source, which meant there was someone else looking out for the town too. It made Shiro feel a bit better about having fun in his races. 

And it was fun, the best thing about it was that he was on such a high, when he did run into Black Lion again, Shiro didn’t feel the heat of needing to win. They settled into their cars after their usual nod. 

In the time they’d spent at different races, Black Lion and him had obviously both been winning. they were lined up at the head of the pack at starting. Shiro was still in the second spot, but he was fine with that. Griffon had sunk somewhat too, Shiro hadn’t seen him in a while, but whatever he’d been doing in races left him in the fifth spot at the start of the race, which made him easier for Shiro and Black Lion to ignore. 

Shiro pressed a hand over the photos in his suit, watching Black Lion get into his car and strap in. To his surprise, he caught a glimpse of Black Lion doing something similar to what Shiro was just doing, a pre-race ritual, running his hand over something Shiro couldn’t see on the side of his car. He reminded himself what Matt had said at their last race, refocusing on the competition at hand so he could potentially win this, and maybe even have a little bit of fun with the Black Lion. Shiro had learned a lot of new things since that last race where Black Lion had totally thrown him off. 

As the countdown started, Shiro settled his attention on the track, he knew it well by now, and if he got the start just right, he could pull ahead at the beginning. That could be enough to keep him in the lead the rest of the race, and if he could take home the money, he had started to research other organizations that could do a lot of good with it, and he was ready to start giving to some of those. 

His grip tightened on the wheel, the signal striking to let them know they could go, and Shiro took off out in front of Black Lion. Shiro knew he had to get ahead before the first turn, carefully edging towards the inside while Black Lion tried to force him out. It wasn’t often that Black Lion actually took the defensive, and Shiro quickly realized it was because whoever was in the third spot had pressed right up against Black Lion’s back. 

Normally, that would be an opportunity for Shiro, but whoever it was seemed to not understand how close they could get without putting all three of them in danger. If he made the wrong move, Shiro and Keith would hit each other before they’d probably careen into the wall like hot wheels toys on a track with a bad curve. 

Trying not to lose his potential lead though, Shiro kept himself in a spot to box Keith out, aiming to get in front before the first turn could put him ahead and in a safer position. He could hear Matt in his helmet, telling him that he didn’t like what that other guy was doing, but Shiro just ignored it. 

Black Lion seemed to be trying to do the same, focused on boxing Shiro out as they rounded the first turn. Shiro knew the straight after the first turn was long, and he knew the next turn was a right, making it easier for him to take the lead when they got to it. But in a flash, he could see that wasn’t going to happen. 

The person in third tried a maneuver that caused him to clip the back end of Black Lion’s car, sending it spinning into Shiro’s. For a moment, Shiro felt the terror, the spinning, the sound of metal on metal and metal on pavement as visions of the crash filled his head. He thought he was going to be stuck seeing those things forever, the burning outer wall of the plane he’d been flying and the limp body of his co-pilot who’d died on impact. 

Then he saw a flash, not in the memory, but in the moment his car tipped over and rolled with Black Lion’s, his helmet skidding on the ground as the shining object flew past and skittered down the pavement. 

When he stopped, he couldn’t quite remember how he’d gotten there, the spinning throwing him off and his head aching slightly. Shiro could feel the heat though, something that he didn’t like. As he started to see plane wreckage again, he forced himself to carefully cut the seatbelt so he could crawl away. 

He knew he wasn’t supposed to, but it felt like he was going to suffocate staying there, the memories which had turned his hair white were invading his entire headspace, filling up his helmet and giving him phantom pain in his arm. Shiro crawled, stopping as he felt his hand hit something on the pavement, the small clanging noise pulling him from his vision again as he looked down on a knife. 

Not just any knife, a knife he’d seen a thousand times, one that was nearly always strapped to Keith’s belt, one that he’d seen Keith cut apples and sandwiches and zip ties with. The knife he’d made a special holder for on Keith’s antique bike, the knife with the small, purple lightning bolt which represented Keith’s mother’s heritage, the knife which meant that Black Lion was Keith. 

Shiro picked his head up, carefully tugging off his helmet as he slipped the clip on the back of the knife into the pocket on the front of his suit and he ran for the other car. He was dazed, his vision blurring as he came upon the already smoking car. 

It was upside down, Keith still inside it, and his helmet flattened by being dragged over the pavement of the track. Shiro didn’t hesitate, he got on his stomach next to Keith and he knew Keith would be okay. A formula one driver hadn’t died in years, but Shiro couldn’t help himself. 

He set one hand on the back of Keith’s helmet, being careful not to move it even in the slightest in case Keith had a neck injury, and all he could bring himself to do was mumbled. Keith probably couldn’t hear it, but he tried. 

“It’s okay Keith,” Shiro said, “I’m here baby, you’re going to be okay, I have your mom’s knife. You’re okay, I love you.” 

The paramedics got there first, one kneeling down next to Shiro and asking him how he felt. Shiro was sobbing, Keith hadn’t even moved since he got there, and he moved out of the way so the paramedic could go to Keith instead. One kept trying to talk to him, but it all felt like it was too slow. Pushing the car over, cutting Keith’s seatbelt, removing his helmet, it all felt too slow. 

Then Keith was in the ambulance, and Shiro was standing behind it. 

“You have to let me go with him.” Shiro tried to climb in, but a paramedic pushed him back. 

“I’m sorry, you–”   
“Please! His mother will kill me if I let you take him alone. I have to go to the hospital anyway, let me go with.” Shiro watched the paramedic look at the one behind him, and Shiro started to undo the front of his suit, pulling out the photos he kept there. A string of pictures from a photo booth of him and Keith, and one of Shiro and his grandfather. He held the photobooth photos up to the paramedic, “don’t look at him, look at me. See? I’m his boyfriend, please. He’s trans too, you can’t send him to a hospital alone, he’ll get mistreated.” 

Shiro could see the paramedics look at each other again, and then the one in front of him pulled back, gesturing for Shiro to get in. He didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, getting into the ambulance and sitting alongside Keith’s quiet form. Keith was breathing, Shiro could see it, but he was still out cold. 

“Is it okay for me to hold his hand?” Shiro asked as the ambulance doors shut. The paramedics looked at each other and one said yes, so Shiro took his hand and squeezed it gently. 

He did his best not to interfere with the paramedics as they brought Keith into the trauma center, and they managed to make sure Keith and Shiro stayed together as they both got looked at. Keith was stammering slightly, every now and then, but Shiro could hear the doctors worry about his brain, talking about inducing a coma. He swallowed, thinking of the dreams he’d had that first week he’d spent asleep in the hospital. Shiro didn’t want Keith to experience that. 

“Shiro?” Keith looked up at him with a moment of unusual clarity, Shiro had two nurses on him though, trying to look at his head, check his body for new injuries, but the safety measures in his car had done him well. All the injuries they found were old, save for a few spots on his hand that he’d fractured bones from impact and a concussion which didn’t surprise anyone.  
“I’m right here, Keith.” Shiro shifted to look, but Keith had already fallen back into some sort of passed out or sleep, he wasn’t sure. 

Then they were in a room, two beds, one to Shiro, one to Keith and Matt showed up. Matt, who only in that very moment realized Black Lion was Keith. 

“Holy shit.” Matt stared at Keith in amazement and then walked Shiro’s phone over to him, “god, fuck, Keith? Oh my god, that makes. Keith was always such a good driver.” 

“I know.” Shiro looked at Keith, worried, but the doctors had said he was stable. He took his phone from Matt, “Can you do me a favor? See if you can get Keith’s stuff, my guess is it’s on his trailer.” 

“Yes.” Matt nodded, “I’ll be back, you should call his parents.”

“I’m going to.” Shiro turned to his phone as Matt left again, calling Krolia and explaining that he was there, that he’d been racing too. It seemed to confuse her, but she did seem happy Shiro could be there to comfort Keith. They were at the airport, on their way and she promised that they’d be there soon, and she made Shiro promise he’d look after Keith until they got there. 

“I promise, I was already planning on it.” Shiro said, his voice low, and he could hear Krolia smile over the phone. 

“You’re good for him, Shiro.” Her voice seemed to choke. “Hell, you were even making him a better driver and none of us realized.”

Shiro couldn’t help but laugh, and he rubbed his face, “I love him Krolia, I promise. I’ll take care of him.” 

“Good.” Krolia hung up so she could board the plane. 

They still hadn’t arrived when Keith woke up. In fact, Shiro was almost asleep himself when Keith did. His voice sounded more hoarse than ever, and as he sat himself up in the bed, Shiro heard him grunt. 

“God, stupid fucking newbie.” Keith rubbed his head, and as Shiro sat up in the bed beside him, he could tell Keith hadn’t noticed him. 

“Keith.” Shiro’s voice was low, and he watched as Keith nearly jumped out of his bed, pressing against the side and looking Shiro over as he reached forward to turn on a bed-side light. “It’s me. Sorry.” 

“Shiro?” Keith shifted, leaning towards him now, over the side of the bed, “What _ – _ oh my god, you’re hurt. How did you get hurt?” 

“I, yeah.” Shiro bowed his head and sighed, “I have some stuff to explain. How do you feel?” 

“I have an awful headache.” Keith glowered at him, “And I really wish we were in the same bed right now.” 

Shiro felt himself laugh, and he could hear Keith chuckle softly as well. 

“Why are you here?” Keith asked. 

“Because, we’ve been racing against each other a long time.” Shiro started to get up, his body ached, but he could walk pretty much fine. He didn’t like being in the hospital, it put him on edge, but he walked up to Keith’s bed and Keith gladly shifted for Shiro to get in with him. “I didn’t know you were Black Lion.” 

“Then you’re…” Keith gasped softly, “...Wait, that’s how White Lion started to learn to do things I could do.” 

“Yeah.” Shiro laughed softly, “You didn’t even know you were teaching me.” 

“Oh my god,” Keith pressed his hands to his face. “Wait then, how did you find out?” 

“We both got hit, your knife flew out of your car, I think when you stopped? But I picked it up and I knew.” Shiro carefully ran a hand over Keith’s bicep. 

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Keith asked, his eyes not scanning Shiro’s in a face. Shiro wasn’t going to lie, but he really couldn’t blame Keith.

“I was afraid you’d want me to stop.” Shiro laughed, “That seems incredibly stupid now.” 

Keith chuckled, breathy and soft, “Yeah, it does. But I guess, I was afraid to tell you for similar reasons. Plus, I thought if you knew I had a public following, you’d try to leave me because of your reputation.” 

Shiro huffed and shook his head. “You’re probably right, I would have tried.” 

“Yeah.” Keith smiled, shifting a bit to pet Shiro’s face. “It’s okay though, I get it.” 

Shiro settled a hand over Keiths and smiled back at him, “I don’t think you could get rid of me now if you tried you know.” 

“Good.” Keith leaned forward and pressed a kiss on Shiro’s lips. “Ow.” 

“Moving hurt?” Shiro ran his fingers over the back of Keith’s hand gently. 

“Yeah.” Keith took a deep breath and leaned into him. “My parents aren’t going to be happy about this.” 

“They’ll be okay. They’re on their way here though.” Shiro watched as Keith laughed again, “Your mom told me I wasn’t allowed to leave you alone until they got here.” 

“Sounds like her.” Keith shook his head slightly and then looked up at Shiro meaningfully, “You know, I’m wondering now. There was another Black Lion once.” 

Shiro smiled, “That was me. I don’t know how you wound up using my name, but you know, White Lion seemed to fit me better now.” 

He gestured at his hair and Keith laughed softly, just shaking his head. 

“Pidge suggested I use it.” Keith ran a hand over his chest as if he was tracing a surgery scar, “The first race I did was to get the money for this. She suggested I use your old name when I entered. She didn’t tell me it was yours though.” 

Shiro shook his head, “That sounds like her.” 

Keith coughed as he laughed, nodding before he settled his face into Shiro’s shoulder. 

“Will you stay here? In this bed with me?” Keith asked. 

“I’ll always stay with you.” Shiro started to pull the blankets over them. “It’ll be better for me anyway, I’m not the biggest fan of the hospital.” 

“I know. I love you.” Keith turned his face up to kiss Shiro’s jaw, looking at him carefully, “you know, when I was on the track and barely awake, I thought I was just dreaming that I could hear your voice.” 

“I love you too Keith.” Shiro smiled, “and that was me, I was there.” 

Keith studied his face again, and Shiro was starting to wonder what he was thinking so hard about. After a bit, he decided just to ask, “what are you thinking about?” 

“A lot.” Keith sighed and closed his eyes as he finally stopped staring at Shiro and settled his face on his chest instead. “You know, I regretted not telling you that I could spend the rest of my life with you.” 

“When you were on the track?” Shiro felt his face get warm, but Keith wasn’t looking, so he could hide the flushed feeling by pressing into Keith’s hair. 

“Yeah.” Keith laughed, small and hoarse, “I would spend the rest of my life with you Shiro. I wanted you to know.” 

Shiro couldn’t help the smile that crawled across his face, “I’d spend the rest of my life with you too you know. I’ve felt that way for a while.” 

“I’m glad we both feel the same.” Keith tightened his grip on Shiro. “We probably shouldn’t make any plans after we’ve both knocked our heads, but I’m glad we both know.” 

“Yeah.” Shiro chuckled, “we can talk about it again later.” 

“That sounds good.” Keith shifted, pulling his hand up near his face and wedging himself against Shiro so he could sleep.

Keith’s parents arrive early the next morning after Shiro and Keith had been separated by the nurses for breakfast. They weren’t in the worst shape luckily, Keith was worse off, a serious concussion meant he’d have to be careful about his racing and he couldn’t drive any of hi equipment home. 

They sat as a family, shortly after Keith’s parents arrived and made a plan to get everyone home once they were out of the hospital. It didn’t take them too long, Shiro could drive Keith’s car and trailer home with Keith, while Matt took his and Keith’s parents flew home. Krolia seemed on edge about leaving Keith, but she also seemed to know that this was the best plan. She agreed easily then, especially since Keith got a searing headache towards the end of the conversation and they had to stop talking so he could rest. 

Shiro was discharged from the hospital two days before Keith, which gave him about enough time to shower in the hotel room Krolia had gotten but hadn’t stayed in, and then he stopped by a quiet little shop just a few doors down. He bought what he needed, and then spent the next two days waiting for Keith to be let go. 

When he was, Keith held onto Shiro’s arm the whole way out of the hospital. They dropped off his parents at the airport first, and since they’d made their plans, Keith and Shiro had decided they could take this drive slowly, and stop along the way so they could pretend it was a vacation. Their first stop was in Southwestern town in Colorado where they could take an old train up into the mountains to see the views. 

Keith had talked about wanting to do it before, made it sound sort of like a bucket list thing, and as they pulled into the tiny town of Durango, Shiro could see why. The old steam train looked really cool, he had to admit he could marvel at the mechanics for hours, but he had other plans. 

“You coming?” Keith asked as he hopped out of the car in the parking lot of a tiny diner where they were going to get breakfast before they took the train up. 

“Yeah, just go on ahead and get us a table.” Shiro smiled at Keith as he nodded, closing the car door, and Shiro quickly pulled open a small hiding space on the driver’s side of the car. He took the box from it, opening it just enough to check that the ring he’d bought was still there before he slipped it back into his pocket. 

He locked the car behind him, smiling to himself again as he followed Keith into the diner. 


End file.
